Power Rangers: Hyper Thunder
by Neptune-Megaz0rd
Summary: When the evil Kurome unleashes a force of darkness on Gamicadimi, Uzume Tennouboshi must recruit 7 teenagers to become Power Rangers. But do a soccer athlete, a lone musician, and a computer nerd; along with a petite author, twintail-tsundere, closet-fujoshi, and a loveable ditz have what it takes to work together to become heroes? (Dino Thunder storyline in a Neptunia AU setting)
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hyperdimension Neptunia or Power Rangers franchises. Both belong to their respective owners (Idea Factory International and Saban Brands).

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Day of The CPUs (Part I)**

" _*Pant*, *Pant*, *Pant*..._ "

Thoughts and fears were racing through Uzume Tennouboshi's head as she frantically zoomed through corridors and hallways of what appeared to be the ruins of an old basillicom lost to the elements. Not daring to look back, she could faintly the footsteps of several monsters chasing after her as she slid down a flight of stairs before making a mad sprint towards the other side of the old shrine.

Not much to anyone's surprise, her pursuers soon followed suit, as they also made their way down the same stairs before an ominous figure rose among the rest of the group walked in front of the others.

"Find her," the mysterious figure said in an eerie voice. "She must not escape the Dark CPU's grasp."

The small horde of monster soon began to spread out throughout the building to search for the person.

 _'Not good, not good,'_ she thought to herself before turning a corner and vaulting over a small ledge, leading her into another room.

The small open area within the palace was slightly ravaged by plant overgrowth and moss, but was relatively intact nonetheless. Survival supplies and gear were scattered all over the room along with paper notes, journals, books, and mechanical devices littered on the large central table. Among this also included her lifelong companion, a floating fish-like monster with an unusually human face, who appeared to be monitoring one of the computer-like displays before noticing his partner's sudden arrival.

The red-haired girl quickly began to slide everything across the table into a small bag she picked up off the ground.

"U-Uzume?!" the sentient fish-like creature said in shock to its companion. "What's going on? W-What happened?!"

"No time to explain Umio. We need to get out of here," Uzume replied as she continued cleaning off the remaining contents on the table. "How much energy is left in that share crystal?"

"Enough for one more portal jump before it shatters," he replied, somewhat concerned at her question. "But, the sharite hasn't been restabilized yet. Who knows if we'll return the right di—"

Immediately, three shadow-like creatures suddenly appeared right before the two travelers

"Uwah—!" Umio cried out as he attacked one of the enemy monsters using his fins followed by tackling it in the face.

Dropping her bag, Uzume immediately pulled out a large megaphone from her hips and whacked it upside one of the remaining goons before delivering a roundhouse kick to the latter.

"Set off the charges, now!" she shouted as she slung the dropped bag over her shoulders, beginning to notice several more monsters approaching down the ledge.

At his partners request, Umio then detonated on a switch that set off a series of pre-planted explosives chained throughout the abandoned building complex, causing several old pillars, walls, and entire rooms within the basillicom ruins to come crashing down. The shockwave these charges caused were more than enough to distract or stagger the nearby monsters, allowing the red-haired girl to quickly grab her fish friend and the glowing crystal on the table before running off towards the large balcony overhang on the other side of the building.

"Not good," Uzume said to herself as she noticed many more monsters trailing them as she and her partner made their way towards the end of the tall high-rise.

As the chain of explosions, along with the swarm of creatures quickly approaching, she had no choice but to focus her entire mind on the mysterious crystal before tossing it towards the edge of the balcony.

The share crystal immediately shattered, creating a portal right bellow the balcony's ledge small enough for only herself and Umio to enter though.

Still holding on to the bag slung across her shoulder as well and her friend, Uzume proceeded to make a leap of faith of the edge of the building, diving headfirst into the mysterious wormhole before disappearing altogether along with the portal itself.

The sudden warp soon collapsed on itself before and pursuers could follow suit along with the incoming blast radius, as the rest of the old basillicom was engulfed in flames and explosions.

* * *

 _Some Years Later..._

It was a bright and early morning at Gamacademi high. The clear and sunny sky gave a great start to the new school year among it's students; with feelings ranging from the first-year freshmen who were both scared and excited about starting in a completely new chapter of their life to the seniors who were excited that this was their final step toward adulthood and complete freedom.

A familiar face sighed as she parked her off-road truck into the nearby faculty parking lot before hopping off with a duffel bag which had her trusty megaphone and other materials along with her trusty companion. The duffel bag itself appeared to have a large power-button symbol to it.

The sanguine-haired girl appeared older, or attempted to appear older, at least; no longer with her usual attire of an unbuttoned white jacket and short grey skirt attached with a pair of black suspenders along with lacking an unusual pair of black boots and leg warmer/socks as well as her fingerless gloves.

Instead, she was wearing a straight, cuffed, jacket-like uniform that might have looked one-too-many-sizes larger than her, in white with an orange-colored trimming. She also appeared to have a bit more of a longer modest skirt and dark leggings/pantyhose on as well. Topping it off were the pair of thin, teal glasses she wore in front of her face as well as pair of black triangle hair-clips on the side of her head and an orange tie that had a large black swirl design on it. Despite having her long hair tied up in knotted pigtails flowing at the bottom, her entire appearance almost gave off a 'professional' aura to it.

Uzume made her way towards the school's front entrance as she looked around and observed many of the various students entering the building from all directions, adjusting her glasses and sighing before turning towards her partner inside the duffel bag and saying.

"Never thought I'd imagine myself doing something like this, being a teacher..." she said to Umio. "I wonder how Nepsy and Gearsy would react to seeing me like this. You think we'll ever return back to the others?"

"Don't worry, I'm right by your side," He gave her a 'thumb,' or 'fin'-up. "I'm sure we will soon enough," the fish-companion assured her.

* * *

Meanwhile, at loop driveway in front of the school, a small white limousine pulled up, getting ready to drop-off a student for her first day in the second-year. Inside the back passenger seat was a young petite girl with dark blue eyes and short, light brown hair along with her maid, who appeared to be fixing the girl's uniform last minute.

"Lady Blanc, are you sure you'll be alright on your first day of school?" the young maid asked as she adjusted the small tan bowtie and whitish-sweater from her even younger mistress' outfit, along with straightening out her kneesocks and lightly polishing her shoes. The young high-schooler's chamberlain appeared to have long, slightly curly, elbow-length, sandy-colored hair that matched her light brown eyes and wore a short-sleeved red maid dress along with a white apron and bonnet atop her head. "Do you have anything you need?"

"Yes, Financier, I'll be fine," the short schoolgirl assured her caretaker in a soft, quiet, almost detached voice as she tilted her head, still focused on reading a small novel in her hands despite her maid's distractions and movements.

"I know, but..." her maid, Financier lightly huffed as she brushed a speck of lint or dust off the girl's collar. "It's my duty as a servant to care for you and rest of the household, especially since your parents are out of town on a business trip."

"Don't worry," Blanc replied in dryly, her eyes still glued onto the book in hand "Rom and Ram are already in daycare with Mina; nothing's going to happen to any of us—"

"Lady, Blanc!" Financier lightly snapped as she held the petite teenager's head and looked at her straight in the eye. "Don't you remember what happened last year?" she continued, with a look of genuine concern before releasing her grasp on the young mistress' face and extending a pinky finger towards her. "As the future heir and pride and joy to the household, promise me you won't start any trouble and will get with people starting today, please?"

Blanc let out a small sigh as she closed the book in her hand before linking her finger with Financier's pinky-promise, attempting to muster a more sincere voice as she could.

"I promise," Blanc answered, now giving her family's must trusted house-servant a small hug before grabbing the rest of her textbooks in a small backpack and exiting the limo.

"Have a great day at school, Lady Blanc," Financier said as she held the door open for Blanc before bowing and waved at her departure as the second-year high student walked into the building.

As the limousine drove off and out of sight, Blanc's face returned to a slightly frowning expression as she heard the first school bell going off.

"Sigh... let's just get this over with," she said to herself in her usually neutral voice.

* * *

As Uzume was walking down the main hallways, a woman wearing a very professional, beige, administrator suit along with a pair of glasses that screamed with 'super-strictness', approached her.

"Dr. Tennouboshi, I'm vice-principle Randall," the woman said with a sharp glare at Uzume.

"Oh, well it's nice to finally meet you," Uzume replied, extending a hand out in greeting as the two walked down the hall.

The woman simply ignored her handshake offer as she pulled out a binder and skimmed through it. "Yes, and I'm still trying to figure out what one of the world's most successful wildlife experts is doing here at Gamacademi-High?" She said in a suspicious tone. "Or rather, why she's happening to teach general biology to a bunch of high-schoolers down here."

"Well... guess I'm just trying to looking to settle down from all the excitement of traveling and exploring lately," Uzume sighed.

"At such a young, youthful age as yourself? Hardly," the vice-principle sarcastically replied as she closed her binder and blocked the way in front of Uzume. "That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, now does it, Dr. Tennouboshi?"

"What can I say, even the youthful ones like myself need to rest," she joked to her new supervisor, only making her appear more annoyed.

In her mind, Uzume bit her lip to the woman's interrogation-like manners. This lady really didn't seem to be too fond of her presence as a teacher here at all whatsoever.

"You know, I was thinking," she said to Randall, in an attempt to avoid the question further and ease the tension. "Maybe we should have a staff meeting along with the other newer staff; that way, you can kinda fill us in here on what you expect of us."

"I expect you and the rest of the faculty to make it hard for them; painful, if at all possible," she grinned sadistically. "If they smile, you know you've done something wrong," she continued.

'Ouch,' Umio thought to himself as he overheard the what the two were saying through the duffel bag.

The first bell then rang, saving Uzume from the awkward conversation further.

'Saved by the bell...' the young professor thought to herself.

"Now then, I'm off to find my first troublemakers of the day. We'll talk later," Randall said with a glare before walking off.

Uzume simply shook her head as she headed towards her assigned teaching classroom.

* * *

Excited laughter, flying paper, various conversations, and blaring music filled the classroom as a red-eyed, raven-haired girl with twintails tied with a pair of greyish-purple ribbons entered into the room. She had a tall slender figure, wearing a black-colored school uniform trimmed in dark purple and plaid red skirt that matched her tie along with knee-length thigh-highs.

But right as she was about to take a seat next to a girl who seemed to be busy writing something into a notebook, a tall blonde girl suddenly got up from her seat and approached her.

The preppy blonde wore a tied-up short ponytail along with white and pinkish-white uniform and a long tan dress. Holding a pen and small memo pad on her hand, she was ready to interview the ravenette, much to the latter's annoyance.

"Noire, there's a juicy question that the school has been dying to know," the girl said ecstatically, wearing a smile that the ravenette considered way too perky; almost reminding her of another fellow classmate who has yet to arrive. "As a member of the student council, do you have any comments regarding the rumors surrounding Class President Vert's money-laundering scheme?"

"W-Why are you asking me?" Noire scoffed, fighting hard to hold back her annoyance. "G-Go ask her yourself, Cassidy!"

"New headline: _'_ _Vice-president of the student council actively denies classroom scandal'_ , alright..." the preppy blonde said, writing down her own notes, much to Noire's annoyance, before blocking the ravenette's way once again. "Can you also care to confirm the romantic relationship between you and the classroom delinquent Neptune as well?" she said with a grinning smile and pen ready to write any details down.

"W-W-What are you talking about?!" Noire's face flustered in a bright red felt glow as she grew angrilly at the pestering reporters question.

But before she could say anything else, however, the late bell suddenly rang and a young woman, whom appeared to look somewhat older than the students, with long sanguine-colored hair and was wearing glasses walked into the classroom.

"...Hey, everyone, settle down," she said in a normal voice, not much to the rowdy classroom's attention.

The noise in the lab-like classroom simply grew more chaotic as Uzume began to pull out a large megaphone from her bag.

"Looks like I'm going to have to use this, aren't I...?" she said to herself and Umio, still in the bag, as she adjusted the controls on it without anyone's awareness before taking a deep breath and using it.

 **"*AHEM!*"** she shouted with a loud voice echoing through the megaphone, catching the entire room's attention before placing down her oversized speaker. "Now that I have your attention, take your seats, please," she called as everyone stopped what they were doing and began to settle down as she smiled. "Thank you."

"My name is Dr. Tennouboshi, and welcome to first period biology," she announced herself, examining the students in the classroom; some with relatively familiar faces she's came across in her previous travels, others, not so much.

Right off the bat, she could spot a few noticeable figures among the 20 or so seat classroom. One was a young teen with curly, dirty-blonde hair and almost punk-like eyeliner wearing a navy, short-sleeved blazer uniform with a yellow undershirt and plaid skirt along with full leggings, who was still busy writing lyrics or music notes on her notebook. Sitting along side her on the far left table was Noire, a face familiar to the professor throughout her several travels and adventures. Still flustered from the 'reporter's' earlier comment, she appeared to still be fuming with frustration.

Sitting in the front of the classroom on the opposite end, away from the preppy blonde that 'harassed' Noire earlier, was a short brunette girl with a leaf-green bow hair tie on the side of her hair and wore a blue and red-colored uniform along with a sweater that also appeared a tad bit too large for her. Next to her was her friend, a tall, cheerful girl with waist-length and wavy pinkish hair who happened to be wearing a cream-pink color of medical scrubs. Perhaps she might be working or training as a nurse's assistant while on campus, which might explain why she's out of normal dress code. Luckily for Uzume, they both seemed to be giving professor their full attention, at least.

Another figure that caught her eye was a young man with dark skin and wore a bluish-colored gakuran button-up uniform with long sleeves and matching pants; he appeared to be intensely focused on his laptop screen. While Uzume knew that it was normal for students to bring their own device to study or take notes with, she was pretty sure that he wasn't exactly going to participate in class. Judging by his hand movements, at least he didn't appear to be playing video games or worse in the middle of class, at least. Still, why is he lurching over so much, as if he was trying to hide something. If it was something _that_ important, possibly for another class, she'd rather not call him out in the middle of a bunch of other sophomore students.

"But, before we start," Uzume continued. "Are there any questions?"

At that, a raised hand suddenly jumped up in front of the classroom. It was none other than the same jumpy blonde that pestered the ravenette twintails moments ago.

"Yes?" Uzume said.

"Cassidy, local anchor and field reporter for the school's TV station—" she smiled perkly.

The majority of her classmates simply groaned and rolled their eyes with irritation as she got up and introduced herself to the new Biology teacher.

"Anyways, Dr. Tennouboshi," Cassidy frowned, then smiled again at her new teacher. "I'm sure our viewers are wondering, aren't you a bit too young to be a teacher?" the bubbly reporter said before nudging at her nearby partner, who appeared to be holding a camera. "Devin, are you getting this? C'mon, we need to get this story before either Famitsu or Dengekiko do!"

Uzume simply furrowed her brow and shook her head in annoyance as she saw the girl's partner getting up and trying to film her.

"Cassidy, I promise you I'm old enough," Uzume assured the two, giving the pair a smile. "So let's put the camera away, okay?"

"You missed it!" Cassidy scolded her friend with a whisper as they went back to their seats. "The rest of the newspaper club are going to catch up with us at this rate!"

"For now, let's talk about you all, and what you expect to get from this class," Uzume said with a confident grin as she looked around the student in the classroom. "Cause that's what really matters."

As the biology professor eyeballed the rest of the room, an empty seat at one of the front tables suddenly caught Dr. Tennouboshi's attention.

Make that two, actually. Each from a different table.

A frown instantly formed on the new science teacher's face, as her eye slightly twitched in a tinge of frustration.

"Are we missing people?" she asked.

Most of the class secretly shook their heads with smirks, knowing exactly who the missing student(s) were and where each of them were hiding at the moment. After a full year, the students more or less learned what to expect among some of their peers.

"Iffy, did Nep-Nep run off to play video games in the empty classroom again?" the nursing student said to her friend.

"Sheesh, on the first day of school too?" the brunette rested the side of her head on her hand. "You'd think Nep would know by now, Compa."

'Wait, Nepsy—, Neptune is here too?' Uzume thought to herself, overhearing the pair's front-table conversation, before shaking off the thought in her head. 'No, I have to focus on this first,' she thought to herself before continuing.

"You know what, how about I take attendance first?" she said, picking up the clipboard on her desk and began reading down the roster. "Kira?"

"Here," the dirty-blonde musician said, raising her hand as she was still writing down on her music sheet, it appeared.

"CC2? Falcom? Marvy?"

"Here!" A girl with green eyes and wolf-like ears answered, followed by a red-haired girl wearing a long ponytail, soon followed by an orange haired girl with short-hair and a uniform that appears to be a tad bit smaller than her bust.

"Ethan?"

"H-Here!" the dark-skinned young man stammered as he quickly closed his laptop and faced the teacher.

'If I'd known any better, his face is glued to that screen just as much as Gearsy would have been' Uzume thought to herself before snapping back to reality.

...

As she went down the attendance roster list containing an evenly mixed ratio of males and females in the classroom, she noticed two names that were still missing...

* * *

Meanwhile, in the soccer fields outside the main campus,

"You're sure this is a good idea?" A flat chested girl with tied up blue hair wearing a red scarf along with black and orange googles asked, easily catching an incoming ball with her bare hands. "It's the first day, after all. Shouldn't you be in class instead of morning varsity practice?"

"Look, Nisa," a tall young man with short, brown hair wearing a red soccer outfit said to the upperclassman as he began to dribble another ball with his feet. "If anyone says anything, just tell them all-star JV-captain Conner gave himself permission to be out here," he assured her.

"It's you I'm worried about," she replied in an annoyed expression. "Plus, didn't you hear about the new administrators on campus? I heard one of them was even in a curator of the lost archives—"

Conner lightly chuckled as he gestured his hands to calm the upperclassman don't.

"Histoire? You mean that tiny pixie-midget on a flying book is the principle?" he joked. "Don't, worry. What's the worst she could do? Bore me to sleep with reading Shakespeare?"

Nisa nudged/gestured her head to the side as she noticed a certain assistant-principle approaching them, much to Conner's ignorance.

"Don't even get me started on that new biology teacher I skipped class this morning for either," he said mockingly, referring to Dr. Tennouboshi. "She'll probably just be roaming on and on about some cute little dogoo's she saw last weekend or whatever," Conner continued, kicking another ball back and forth between his feet. "Or what about that other new lady in 3A? Mrs. Ryghts, I think? Wasn't she kicked out've business school or something?"

"Conner..." Nisa shook her head in disapproval as vice-principle Randall stood right behind the unfortunate junior-varsity player.

"As for Randall," he confidently nodded. "She's a washed-up crazy woman. Do I even need to say anything else?"

"I think you said enough, sophomore..."

'Well, crap,' Conner cursed to himself as he placed up a 'good-student' facade and turned to face the vice-principle with a completely different tone of voice.

"Vice-principle Randall..." he said with a cheerful voice and fake smile on his face. "I have heard such good... good... _good_ things about you."

"Vicious rumors, I can assure you," she said in an annoyed voice, not falling for the soccer player's pandering. "AP's office, now."

"Aww... you gotta' be kidding me," Conner mouthed to himself as he followed the uptight vice-principle.

* * *

At the end of the fourth bell and very start of lunch period, Noire began making her way to where she knew the other 'missing' student was , the lunchtime bell would be a welcoming half-way sign for most students drugging through the day. But unlike most students, however, the sight (or lack of, in this case) of a certain individual only managed to make the student-council teenager even more irritated.

She was ready to give this 'someone' a piece of her mind, especially with the rumors surrounding the two's supposed 'romantic squabbling,' of which Noire would vehemently deny.

In a vacant classroom not too far from the Noire's location, a certain lilac-haired girl wearing a long-sleeved bright purple blazer that matched her eyes, a pair of white d-pad hair clips, and a plaid magenta skirt was lazily lying on the corner of the room. The girl's full attention seemed to be engrossed on the handheld she was playing with; her arms stretched out holding a portable gaming device, at least, until she heard a knock on the door.

"Neptune!" Noire shouted from the other side of the door. "I know you're in here, open up!"

"Has the loner vice-president come to suck the fun outta' everything again?" the girl now known as Neptune jokingly asked, knowing fully well that this was the usual same routine as any other day for the two. "Actually, I got my foot stuck on something again," she lied. "You mind giving me a hand?"

"For the love of—, why am I always the one having to take care of you," the twintailed student council member shook her head before turning the doorknob. "Hold on I'm coming in..."

Little did Noire know she was walking into a trap. As she entered the room, a small contraption attacked to the door was set-off from above, dropping a muddy bucket of water, carton of eggs, and bag of feathers on the poor girl's head.

"What the—?" Noire shouted as soon as she heard the rigged contraption go off above her head before a slew of content fell on top of her.

"I gotta say, Noire..." Neptune giggled with the occasional snickering and "—Pfffffft" noise, trying her best not to break into a hysterical laughter. "I'm really digging the new look , on your first day of class. It's pretty... _EGG!-cellent_ on you! Ahahahahaha, am I right or what?!"

The lilac-haired schoolgirl violently rolled around beginning to laugh maniacally as she wiped a tear on her eye, not noticing the soaked teen standing completely still as she slowly began to shake her fist.

"Get it?! Cause you're covered in eggs and al—"

"...I'M GONNA KILL YOU NEPTUNE! " Noire suddenly shouted in utter outrage, eyes on the break of tears as her voice pitch picked up, catching the not-so-laughing-now prankster student's attention.

"Uh-oh," Neptune said to herself as she quickly got up and broke into a dash. "I think I just broke her..." the rebellious teen added as she hopped through the open window and into the school's courtyard before making a mad sprint across the field, only to Noire soon following right behind her. "Help! I'm being chased by a maniac that wants to kill me! HELLLLLP"

"Oh, when I get my hands on you Neptune," Noire growled as she chased after the young lilac-haired girl.

"She's gone mad I tell you. MAD!" Neptune shouted, not to anyone in particular.

* * *

At the other side of the courtyard, Kira sat on a small wood table singing and playing on her acoustic guitar as a small crowd gathered around the light-music club member.

 _"...Oh, can you tell me where, tell me where you're at...—"_  
 _"...Freak you out, freak you out, freak you out...—"_  
 _"...Freak you out, freak you out, freak you out, freak you out..."_

Among the small audience was another slightly taller female student listening to the Kira's singing while enjoying her small lunch with a cup of tea from a distance. The girl had long, wavy, elegant, waist-length blonde hair with a small part tied back in a braid as well as deep, beautiful dark-blue eyes that could melt anyone's heart. She wore a sizeable emerald-green blazer that complemented her well-endowed figure along with a black, pleated skirt and full leggings for her uniform.

As the small crowd began clapping and cheering at Kira's performance, vice-principle Randall walked through the circle to students and approached the young musician.

"Miss Kira, I'm afraid you'll need an authorized permit to perform on school grounds," Randall nonchalantly commented as she wrote in her personal binder, not even bothering to look at the girl. "Let's go."

"Are you aware that students who play instruments a fifty-percent higher chance of getting accepted into their first college of choice?" Kira confidently sneered at the vice-principle.

"Well now," Randall turned to face Kira and lowered her glasses with a cold glare. "You're no 5pb at all; what makes even you're college material either?" she said, slamming her binder before turning away.

"Vice principle Randall," the spectating other blonde stood up as she handed the woman a small note. "As class president of the student council, I can assure you that she has written permission to play on school grounds."

"Do you now, Miss Vert?" she asked sarcastically, examining the tiny permission slip right before tearing it straight in half. "Then why am I not surprised that you spent the student council's entire monthly budget on... such _obscene_ material?" she asked before suddenly tossing down a stack of magazines tucked in her binder which appeared to also include a receipt containing the class president's name on it.

"Whoa... BL?" Kira thought to herself while staring at the magazine covers as a few others curiously picked up the risque reading material off the ground, only to have it snatched out of their hands by the vice-principle again.

"As far as I can tell, you're in just as much trouble as well," the vice principle said with an annoyed look. "Now, both of you come with me."

Kira and Vert's jaw dropped in shock as the two followed the strict woman along with Conner, whistling at the now awkward situation.

"...At least you tried," Conner sarcastically remarked.

"But seriously, you bought _that_ to school? With their own _money_?!" Kira quietly whispered to Vert, who simply shook her head blushing. "Just... why?!"

Just then, the four suddenly heard a cry from a certain lilac-haired knucklehead, who appeared to be running straight towards them frantically.

"It's just a prank bro! Calm down!" Neptune shouted aloud, holding on to dear life from the messy-looking ravenette catching up to her. "It's just a prank, c'mon!"

"Neptuuuuuuuuuuuune!" Noire said as she blindly chased the panicking trickster who appeared to be flailing her arms around like a madman. "I'm gonna get you!"

"Is that—?"Vert asked as she held her hand above her eyes blocking the midday glare, wondering as to what her second-in-command was dressed in and why she was chasing someone.

But before any of the four could move out the way, Neptune was suddenly caught and tackled by Noire as the momentum sent the two smacking right into Kira and soon after Conner, breaking the former's instrument in the process.

"My guitar!" Kira shouted.

"Noire? What're you doing here?" Vert asked, confused as to why her friend and fellow student council member was dressed like an abstract art exhibit gone horribly wrong.

"Need to get away, need to away—" Neptune mumbled to herself as she got up, only for Randall to her and Noire by the back of their uniforms.

"Public disruption and horseplay?" she said to Neptune before turning to the dazed Noire. "Disorderly conduct AND clearly violating dress code? Hell hath' no fury for what's in store for you two troublemakers..."

* * *

Upon entering the main hallway, the vice-principle along with her now line of five troublemakers were suddenly greeted with a release of the emergency fire sprinklers, dousing everyone in the building.

"Oh you've got to be kidding me," Kira shouted as she and the others covered their heads and got away from the main sprinklers.

'This is just great,' Conner thought to himself as he and the other five noticed the sophomore student smiling with a grin as he held up a blue umbrella to protect himself.

"Mr. Ethan, I should've known..." vice principle Randall said to herself with a scowl as she rounded up the boy who appeared to be completely unaffected by the sudden water shower.

* * *

Soon after the sprinkler system began to taper off, Randall and the others continued to make their way towards the AP's office. As the six students and their new assistant principle were around a corner outside their destination, a door suddenly kicked wide open with a loud thud and flew across the room, breaking into splinters.

Barging out of the classroom lacking a door was a soaking wet Blanc holding a novel in her hands, clearly ruined due to water damage from earlier. Unlike her previous demeanor from this morning, however, she had a completely different expression on her face. A look of utter rage filled her eyes, as if as was ready to murder someone at a given moment.

"WHICH ONE OF YOU PUNKS DID THIS?!" she shouted out into the hallway while pointing at her book and giving off a deathly glare, her voice seething in anger and volatility.

All the students looked in horror at this petite schoolgirl's sudden outburst similar to what they had observed the previous year.

...Well, all but one, at least.

"Oh hey look," Neptune grinned mischievously. "It's the angry washboard pipsqueak!"

"WHO SAID THAT?!" Blanc yelled with a booming voice, turning directly towards Neptune and the other's direction.

'S-Scary...' Ethan, Kira, and the others thought to themselves as they gulped nervously.

"Oh my," Vert commented, lightly covering her mouth in a mix of fear and curiosity. "So much anger in such a small package."

"IT WAS YOU WASN'T IT!?" the short brown-haired schoolgirl screeched. "YOU BLONDE BIMBO!" her eyes in a demonically red expression as she flung the soggy book in a fit of anger towards Vert.

Although Vert somehow managed to dodge the incoming projectile flying at her with a comedically dangerous speed, the book itself seemed to have left a rather large dent on the lockers behind her, now lodged right in the metal. Safe to say, nobody was going to be pulling that one out anytime soon, not even King Arthur.

"Wow! 15 inches!" Neptune shouted in genuine surprise (or unintentional innuendo) as she gazed at that desecrated locker. "That's a new record!"

"Relaaaaaax," Conner said in a patronizing voice to the angry teenager, only making the situation worse. "It's just a book—"

"Just...a...BOOK?" Blanc said as the vexxed halfpint stomped towards the ignorant soccer athlete with a raised fist. "That " _book_ " so happened to be my one and only exclusively signed first edition copy of the original _Ordinal Scale_ novel. Whoever caused that sprinkler to go off is going to get a foot shoved so far up their as—"

"Ahem!" Randall tapped at Blanc with an unamused expression.

"What the _hell_ do you want, lady?" Blanc turned to face the woman before suddenly realizing who it was.

"Extensive damage to school property, assaulting/threatening another student, AND disrespecting staff..." the vice principle stated as she wrote a few notes in her binder. "I'm sure you're parents must be quite proud of their eldest daughter this early in the year, now aren't they?" Randall smirked before ordering in a hiss. "Go!"

Blanc was about to open her mouth and argue back at the woman, but the attempt quickly died with a swift, even wetter glare from the new vice-principle. Sighing, Blanc adjusted her had and quickly followed Randall along with the other rounded-up students.

* * *

"Sit!" Randall barked upon reaching the chairs outside her office as the seven students quickly did what they were told, not speaking a word to each other.

"Ms. Randall," Ethan spoke up earnestly, clearly hoping for compassion from the new vice principle's scorn. "I'd just like to say that there's absolutely no hard evidence linking me to that _unfortunate_ sprinkler incident."

"Save it for Phoenix Wright, wiseguy..." she glared with an annoyed expression before turning her attention to the other six students as well.

'Because you just so happened to be holding an umbrella indoors at the perfect time too—,' the tattered and messy Noire thought to herself before getting interrupted.

"The seven of you have detention! For one week, starting today!" Randall stated angrily as the student's jaws dropped in shock. "Now if there are no further questions—"

The seven students protested quickly, each saying their own complaints simultaneously in a jumbled cacophony of sounds .

"But I have soccer practi—!"  
"Why am I getting detention just for playing musi—!"  
"I have computer club!"  
"Oh come on!"  
"It was all Neptune's fau—"  
"Oh go to hell, you d—"  
"What about the magazi—"

"I didn't think so!" Randall shouted, ignoring them before storming into her office and slamming the door shut.

...

"Okay, someone _seriously_ needs a hug," Kira huffed in annoyance after a short pause, still holding on to her broken guitar.

"Kinda like the loner here?" Neptune smirked, leaning over her chair and prodding the disgruntled Noire before slipping down face-first. "I'm sure not going to give her one—UWAHH—!"

"This is all your fault Neptune!" Noire angrily cried out, still clearly upset from Neptune's earlier incident.

"Ah relax," Neptune sarcastically replied as she picked herself up off the floor. "Now we can spend more time together. Isn't that all you wanted; to spend time with little-ole'-me?"

"A-As if!" Noire snapped back, "I can't believe I'm stuck in a week of detention thanks to you," she added, before suddenly fully realizing her current situation and breaking into a panic. "Wait a second... detention?! No! No! No!"

"...Welcome to the club..." the musician commented off to the side, clearly observing the poor twintailed girl's denial and panicking.

"This is just terrible, how can I send such a bad example to my little sister?" Noire shrieked in shamefulness, lowering herself and covering her face with her hands as she shook her head. "Not like this, not like this..."

"Aww cheer up Noire," Neptune grinned smugly. "I'm sure Uni will still grow up perfectly fine knowing that her onee-san is a delinquent."

"D-Delinquent?!" Noire stammered as she turned to Neptune yet again. "Wha... W-Why you—! How could you say such a thing?!" she screamed. "You're being a terrible influence to your younger sister, you know that?!"

"Little sister?" Kira curiously asked the ravenette. "You mean the middle-schooler that always ended up bringing lunch to Neptune last year?"

"Oh right, I heard she wanted to join the Robotics club this year too," Ethan added, before suddenly getting outspoken by Neptune. "I think her name was Nepgear or somethin—?"

"Oh puh-uh-leese!" Neptune waved her hand in a flickering motion towards Noire. "My sweet, innocent, lovely angel of a little sister would never pick up my bad habits. Nep Jr. is super-responsible and always takes care of everyone; she's like the Robin to my Batman!"

"More responsible than you, that's for sure—" Kira retorted, much to Noire's delight.

"Will all of you SHUT THE HELL UP PLEASE?!" Blanc suddenly snapped as everyone outside the office went quiet from the unexpected interruption.

...

A few seconds of awkward silence passed among the room before everyone began speaking again.

"Dude…Computer club?" Conner leaned forward and raised his eyebrow at Ethan, who just shook his head with an annoyed eye roll. "Seriously?"

"She's not keeping those magazines to herself, is she?" Vert curiously asked out of the blue, as the rest of them simply facepalmed.

* * *

As the first day of school came to an end, the seven unlucky teenagers stood silently outside a classroom waiting for the new vice-principle to find an unfortunate soul to be in charge of their punishment. It didn't seem to take long to find one, unsurprisingly.

"Dr. Tennouboshi," Randall approached the new science teacher as she walked up the staircase. "How was your first day?"

"Oh the kids were a blast. No problem at all," Uzume assured her. "In fact, one of them in my second period class even made me this cute little plushie as a gift," she said with a gleeful smile, showing off the small sewn doll with button-eyes to her new supervisor.

"Right..." Randall replied with a slightly annoyed expression. "Well you're gonna be seeing more of them in detention? ...The students, I mean."

"Mind telling me what I did?" Uzume said in a lighthearted attitude in order to ease any tension between the two.

"No, I mean that _you're_ in charge of them today..." the vice principle said impatiently.

"Uhh wait, I actually have plans to visit the zoo-quarium outside town today" Uzume declined with a nervous expression. "I don't think I'll be able to—"

"Perfect! You can bring the little demons with you..." Randall insisted to Uzume as they showed up in front of the seven students standing outside the hallway. "That should be sufficient torture for them..."

By the looks of it, Dr. Tennouboshi didn't appear to be too fond of the situation she got dragged into either.

"You've all met, I trust?" she asked with a sadistic smile, glancing between all of them before turning towards Uzume again. "Well, enjoy your little outing." she said with a smirk before walking off, leaving the eight alone together.

Uzume thought to herself as the eight looked at each other in awkward silence. She knew that four of the students standing in front of her were the equivalent (or at least looked remotely identical) to the Blanc, Neptune, Noire, and Vert back on her world. The other three; not so much, or at the least, didn't resemble someone's she met personally during her many travels.

"So..." she said to the seven with a weak smile, scratching the side of her face nervously before continuing. "How do you girls— err... and guys like zoos and aquariums?" the new science teacher shrugged.

* * *

"Whoa! Check out the sick Lion!" Ethan exclaimed, pointing at the large statue as they slowly pulled up to the zoo-quarium's empty parking lot.

"It's... so lifelike," Noire added.

"Lion order!" Neptune shouted as she pointed at the other nearby statues surrounding it before exiting the back of the off-roader. "King of the jungle!"

"You're sure she isn't mentally damaged or something?" Blanc whispered to Noire's ear as everyone got out the truck.

"H-How would I know?" Noire replied in shock. "What do I look like to you, a psychiatric? We've only known each other since childhood!"

"Well, you two sure seem close," Kira joined in, overhearing the conversation. "Didn't seem to have a problem with busting my acoustic guitar at all, now did you?" she asked sarcastically.

"R-right..." Noire shook her head nervously at the musician's comment sheepishly. "Sorry..."

The group stopped at the front of the building's entrance, which appeared to be blocked by large metal bars with a 'CLOSED' sign in front of the doors.

"Hey what gives!?" Neptune pouted. "Why aren't they open?"

"Hmm, that's weird," Uzume said to herself with a frown as she examined the sign. "I could've sworn that today was their grand opening..."

"Oh well, no field-trip for us I guess," Conner shrugged, obviously trying to hide his happy grin.

"Great, let's go home," Kira nodded, giving two thumbs up.

"It's about time," Blanc said bluntly.

'Yes!' Noire and Vert thought to themselves.

"Hold on a moment," the biology teacher commented aloud, interrupting them before they could celebrate any further. "I've got an idea—"

The seven scoffed and groaned as soon as they heard the new science teacher trying to stop them.

"Wait, wait, wait... Just hear me out, okay?" Uzume raised her hands in a stop-like motion to reassure the students. "Why don't you all take a look around the grounds? If any of you girls and guys find something that looks remotely scientific, I'll cancel detention for the rest of the week, for all of you" she told them with a slight grin.

"Sweet!" Ethan smiled happily.

"Too easy!" Neptune confidently boasted. "We'll get this done in a jiffy!"

"I'm liking this new teacher already," Conner added.

"Uhh... Dr. Tennouboshi," Noire approached the biology teacher with a curious expression. "Will it be taken off our permanent record too?"

"Seriously? You still believe in that?" Conner jokingly grinned at the girl, only to be met with an annoyed expression from her.

"She takes her things reeeeeeeeaaaaalllly seriously," Neptune added.

"Uh, wait what? Yeah, sure," Uzume shrugged, answering Noire's question before continuing. "I'm going to go see if I can find someone who can explain what's going on... see when they're opening up."

With that, the seven nodded and made their way towards the nearby forest surrounding the zooquarium.

"Wait, so let me get this straight," Conner asked, looking at Ethan, whom again just shook his head with an annoyed eye roll. "All you guys do is mess with computers? What about video games?"

* * *

The seven teenagers traveled silently through the woodlands, hoping to catch anything good enough to give them a free ticket out of detention.

"So... anyone here heard about how this place used to be a cursed burial ground?" Ethan asked, deciding to break the monotonous silence.

"No, but wasn't there a story a few years ago about some crazy lady living up here and fell into a giant sinkhole?" Vert replied, somewhat intrigued by the forested area.

"Nope, must've missed those two stories, thankfully," Kira said, clearly not interested in the conversation as she wandered through the woods.

"Seriously! It was all over the urban legend websites," Ethan said, walking in front of the pack.

"Fake news!" Neptune jumped up and shouted mockingly.

"Dude, you know this isn't computer club, right?" Conner added, rolling his eyes. "We don't need to hear any of your crazy conspiracy theories."

"Oh, I mister big bad macho ain't afraid afraid of anything, huh?" Ethan countered. "Well, what do you in your spare time? Kick a ball?."

Conner looked at him, wearing an over cocky smile.

"Me? I go out with girls," he told him. "You know? They're one's at school that you ask out, aren't glued to a computer screen all day? With the long hair and the make-up."

"It's like that is it?"Ethan stopped and stood in front of the jock, glaring intently.

"Yeah, it's like that," Conner frowned, glaring at the computer geek just as intensely. "If you gotta' problem, why don't you just say it to my face?"

The height difference between the two boys was clearly shown as the soccer player towered Ethan. Despite this, the two equally starred at each other dead in the eye, either of them ready to land the first strike.

"Ugh! Whatever!" Noire groaned as she walked away from the two, followed by Neptune giggling shortly behind.

"Are those two always like this?" Vert quietly asked the musician, clearly seeing the tension between the two only males of the group.

"Don't know, never really talked to them until today," Kira shrugged as the two walked around them. "Thought they were with you, honestly."

"You idiots," Blanc bluntly stated as she shoved past the two boys despite her even shorter stature. "The sooner we find something that isn't a pile of dog crap, the sooner I don't have to talk to any of you buffoons again."

"See? Told you the short ones are always the grumpiest of the group," Neptune whispered over to Kira, who actually found the remark rather funny for a moment.

"I heard that," Blanc quietly said in a cold glare, cracking her knuckles.

"Look, all I'm trying to do is give you guys the heads up," Ethan interrupted, watching Conner also walk away to follow the girls. "Stuff happens out here!" he added, following from behind as well. "Just don't come crying to me when you fall right into a pit—!"

No sooner had he spoken the words, Ethan along with the others, suddenly felt the ground beneath opened shake violently before swallowed them up.

"Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—" Conner shouted as he fell through the pit.

"Aaaaaaa—!" Kira shouted at the same time.

"You jinxed ittttt—!" Noire cursed angrily at the computer nerd student as they plummeted down the collapsed hole while shouting in fear.

...

Somehow, Neptune was the only one that didn't seem fall through with the other six. At least, initially.

Standing besides the edge of the gaping sinkhole, Neptune began to boast in a comedic manner.

"Ha ha! Neptune beats the RNG game yet again!" she danced in victory.

Just then, without her acknowledgement, the ground began to crack underneath her as well

"I'm the luckiest girl aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive!" she shouted, before suddenly slipping an falling into the cave-in along everyone else.

* * *

"AffimaX...?" Uzume mumbled to herself as she examined the logos and sponsors pasted throughout the building's exterior. "Hmm... why does it sound so familiar"

She then began to pull out a small phone as the lens of her glasses began to flicker in light; her eyes still focused on the distinct logo that caught her attention.

"Umio, you getting this," the young science teacher asked through the speaker, but with no reply. "Umio, are you even there?" she asked slightly louder this time.

Still no answer from her fish companion, just static noise.

"Blasted thing must be broken again," Uzume grumbled to herself, rattling the device in her hand before turning around and heading back to her truck.

As she walked around the corner, the biology teacher noticed the lion statues she caught a glimpse of earlier had gone missing.

"That's weird," she said under her breath, scratching her head. "Where'd it go?"

She then heard the ground shake as her 'phone' began to off. It has to be Umio; he must be in trouble.

"UZUMEEEEEEEE!" Dr. Tennouboshi heard upon picking up the device to her ear again.

Upon turning around, she saw a group of large lions roaming around the parking lot; one of them in particular holding the strap of Uzume's duffel bag in its jaw.

"Hey, hands off the fish, you overgrown feline!" Dr. Tennouboshi shouted as she charged at the beast, delivering a roundhouse kick to its snout. As it flinched and pulled back its head from the strike to the face, the biology teacher was able to catch the bag that fell out of the creatures mouth.

"Got'cha now!" Uzume shouted as she caught the duffel bag midair that contained her best friend before landing gracefully.

Her eyes widened from noticing the lion even angrier than before, now with a few more nearby it, as she then made a mad dash to her truck and locked the doors once inside. After a moment of thought while starting the car, she berated herself for the stupid decision.

"Yeah, great job Uzume. Lock the door why don't you? Because that's gonna help," she faceplanted to herself before flooring the gas pedal and pulling out of the lot just in time, as the living creature was about to pounce on the vehicle.

The pack of lions were chasing the off-road truck as Uzume raced down the driveway to evade them.

"What do we do," Umio panicked upon exiting out the duffel bag inside the vehicle? "What do we do now!?"

"Switch seats with me, I have an idea!" Uzume shouted as she swapped places with her fish companion and slip onto the hatchback before pulling out the same megaphone from earlier this morning, this time to use at the large lions.

'Here goes nothing,' the new science teacher thought to herself as she adjusted the dial on her megaphone to what appeared to be a fireball symbol. She then took a deep breath and aimed the weapon towards the car's pursuers before activating the device, unleashing a plume of flames that engulfed the entire pack of creatures in fire before collapsing.

Umio stopped the off-roader both him and Uzume looked back at the carnage behind them. Instead of seeing a bunch of charred corpses on the pavement, however, the two were confused to see melted metallic bodies that revealed artificial wiring and machinery inside the mechanical creature.

"Just what in the world is going on..." the awestruck biology teacher stood as she shook her head wondering if the kids were alright.

* * *

"You girls okay?" Vert asked, carefully getting up and brushing the dirt off her clothes. The other's nodded as they did the same as well.

"Never been better!" Neptune exclaimed cheerfully. "I'm just glad something here broke my fall," she added, getting a feel of her surroundings.

"Mmpphhhhf!— get your fat butt off me, Neptune!" Noire shouted in anger as she tried to push Neptune off her face.

"Oh hey Noire, how'd you end up down there?"

"You fell on top of me—mmmhphhhhf!" Noire barked in a muffled voice, still under the lilac-haired girl's bosom.

"Aww, I didn't know you bent that wa— UWWWAH!" Neptune teased shortly before finally getting tossed over.

"Alright, you ladies stay here where it's safe. I'll climb and get help." Conner told them, checking out how far he had to climb up to the hold in the ceiling.

"You're joking, right?" Noire replied in an annoyed stare.

"Uhh... I don't think that's such a good idea," Vert warned the foolish jock, clearly noticing how unstable the rock wall was to climb.

"Don't worry. I got this," Conner assured her overconfidently as he began to climb up. "This is just PE class all over again!"

"Yeah, you go do that..." Blanc quietly said, facepalming at Conner's stupidity as the idiotic highschooler fell down with a loud thud and groan in pain.

"Back already?" Ethan sarcastically remarked before he and others helped him up.

"Everyone, this way!" Neptune suddenly shouted on the other side of the place pointing towards the path direction.

"Better than staying here," Kira shrugged. "That's for sure."

"Sure, let's all follow the brain-damaged girl, what could possibly go wrong?" Blanc rolled her eyes as she and the others followed down the cave with Neptune.

* * *

As the seven students navigated through the winding cavern, Kira began to hum shortly before being interrupted from behind by Conner.

"Babe, can you keep it down? I'm trying to focus here," Conner quipped to the musician before walking ahead of the group.

"Did you just call me _babe_?" the shocked Kira said aloud as she turned to some of the others and pointed at the soccer player. "Did he just call me babe?!"

"I think he did," Neptune answered with a mischievous grin on her face, wanting to see what would happen next.

"I don't know, I wasn't listening!" Ethan said with a confused expression, clearly trying to stay away from this argument.

"What?" the athlete asked as Kira ran up to and confronted him. "Just chill out why don't yo—"

"Listen here, my name is Kira," the musician growled at Conner before angrily storming off. "Maybe you should write it your hand or something, so you can remember?!"

"What'd you all do to piss someone off this time?" Noire whispered to Ethan in irritation as she finally caught up along with Vert and Blanc, glancing at the slight stunned soccer player.

"He called her babe, or something. I dunno," Ethan whispered back at the three, not intending to deal with the backlash.

Noire walked over to the slightly taller red teen and lightly slapped him in the face.

"You don't call a girl _babe_ ," she said with a sharp glare before walking off.

Hmph!" Vert grunted with a scowl towards the teen before also walking ahead.

Blanc soon followed behind as she shook her head in disapproval, as Neptune simply walked past Conner with a snickering giggle.

"You were saying about the whole 'going out with girls' thing?" Ethan asked Conner in a mocking tone.

"The ones that _aren't_ downright crazy," Conner elaborated with an annoyed sigh. "Or the ones that don't have a temper tantrum. Or also the the ones that can count up their age."

* * *

After walking a little bit more through the tunnel, the group found themselves staring at a large dinosaur skeleton embedded in the rock wall.

"Well that looks scientific-enough," Blanc commented. "What're we waiting for?"

"This seriously screams Jurassic Park to me,"Kira commented with a shrug.

"Really, cause it screams more like Un-Goro if you ask me," Vert replied as she examined the skeleton carefully.

"Oh, maybe its like a point-and-click adventure?" Neptune suggested.

"Well whatever it is," Conner grinned, slowly reaching out for the skull's jaw. "This'll get us out of detention forever,"

"Hey wait a second," Noire protested as the foolish jock had already tugged on the skeleton. "Don't you think we should—?"

They all jumped as the wall in front of them had suddenly started to move, revealing a mysterious, underground room that was filled with machines and holographic screens. Along the walls appeared to be unusual, alien-like engravings on them as well as power-button symbols, similar to the one found on Dr. Tennouboshi's duffel bag.

"Woah!" Ethan said in astonishment, as they walked inside.

"Wow, looks like something straight out sci-fi novel," Blanc said calmly. "Let's hope Rom and Ram don't touch this place," the short teenager joked to herself as she recalled her two younger sisters' affinity towards 'breaking things'; this room not being any exception.

"I could shoot a crazy video in here!" Kira squealed, looking around the room.

"This looks like the final boss room of my guild's dungeon raid!" Vert grinned with glimmering eyes as she wandered around the room.

"Sweet! Nep-Jr. would love to have a room like this!" Neptune shouted in surprise, imagining her little sister's almost unhealthy obsession with robots and gadgets.

"This must be like, the mothership, for you, dude." Conner said jokingly as he pat Ethan on the shoulder.

"Normally I'd be insulted," the computer nerd replied. "But when you're right, you're right. This is so cool..."

Neptune looked in the center of the room and saw a large pedestal with 7 unusual rocks, each of different colors, on top of it.

"Hey guys, I think I found something..." she told them in a surprised expression. "Come look at these!"

"Nice! One for each of us too!" Conner added as he was about to reach one of the gems. "Dr. T is gonna love it when she sees these."

"Yo'! Don't touch that!" Ethan suddenly shouted before the easygoing soccer player could touch the mysterious crystals.

"Why not?" Conner shrugged as Vert and the others soon walked over to them.

"You're really taking this dumb jock thing to a whole new level," Ethan shook his head at Conner incredulously before turning to the ditzy lilac-haired classmate.

"And you," he said to Neptune, who also appeared to be trying to take one of the rocks as well. "You're taking this whole clueless-idiot thing way too far."

"I'm a simple lady," Neptune grinned while shrugging. "I see a something that looks nice, I take!"

"A retard, more like it," the sharp-tongued Blanc said as she approached closer to the pedestal.

"You're sure we should be taking these?" Vert asked out of curiosity. "I mean, they look beautiful, but I don't think they're supposed to be removed."

"Vert's right," Noire added with a raised eyebrow. "How do we know they're not rigged to blow or something?"

"Look, I have sat through enough lame science lectures to know that, _thing_ , looks fully scientific," Conner shrugged towards Ethan, Noire, and Vert. "Plus, it means I don't have to miss practice," he pointed out, gesturing his hands at the gemstones.

"I hate to agree with him. Really, I do," Kira sighed, then looked at the three with pleading eyes. "But I've already miss one rehearsal. I can't miss another."

"And it means we don't have to bother each other ever again," Blanc stated coldly. "All the better to me..."

"Fair enough," Vert shrugged. "Noire and I need to make it back to a student-council meeting as well, so..."

With slow movement's, the seven teens each lifted the gems, which strangely started to glow in their hands.

"Well, what are they?" Kira asked, staring at the glowing yellow crystal in her hand.

"I'm not sure," Noire replied, looking very closely at the glowing black crystal in her hand. "But they sure don't look like anything I've seen before."

"This does make for some lovely jewelry at least," Vert suggested, holding her bright green gemstone very carefully. "After it's been cut, of course."

"Might be some kind of rare unobtanium Macguffin we got here," Neptune smirked as she scratched her chin and squinted her eyes at the vibrantly glowing purple gem now in her possession.

"I can go online later and find out," Ethan told her, examining his glowing blue gem.

"You in front of a computer?" Conner let out a low chuckle while holding a glowing red gem. "Wait, let me put on my surprised face," he said sarcastically.

"You know, ten years from now, when your hairline's receding and you're playing pick-up soccer in the park cause' your dreams of turning pro never quite worked out," the computer genius mocked as he began to fantasize his own possible future, nodding. "I'll have my own multi-billion-dollar software business... yeah."

"...Or be stuck as a lowly script kiddie for the rest of your life," the short Blanc remarked rather rudely, noticing the white colored crystal in her hand beginning to glow too. "I'm going," she said, adjusting her small hat before walking off.

"She's right, let's get get out of here," Kira told them, walking away along with the young, short bookworm.

"Hey, where are you going?" Ethan said, raising an eyebrow at singer and small duo heading towards the exit.

"I don't want to think about what kind of a freak of nature lives in a place like this. And I sure don't want to be here when it comes home." Kira replied as everyone else began making their way towards the exit.

"Don't you realize we just stole someone's property? We're thieves!" Noire cried out in protest, breaking into a shrieking panic. "I'm too young to go to jail!"

"Don't worry Noire," Neptune smirked as she patted the ravenette on the back and proceeded to catch up with the rest of the group. "The cute, uptight, ones always get captured first."

"Ugh!— why you!?"

"Hey! At least it wasn't a booby trap that blew us all up," Neptune joked as she slipped the purple crystal into her pocket and skipped along merrily.

* * *

Meanwhile, at some unknown location...

She could sense their movements. The sharicite crystals she so terribly desired had terribly desired had awoken from their dormant state.

"My lord..." an eerie voice said, coming from a hologram. The figure that had contacted her appeared to resemble a large reptilian humanoid. "Have you also sensed the gems moving?"

"..." she silently nodded, knowing fully well what the next step in their plan was. Despite not speaking a single word directly, the reptilian creature, now known as Mesogog, could fully understand what it's creator, a bluish-purple figure shrouded in mist, wanted before the hologram was turned off.

"Go..." Mesogog turned around and waved a hand towards his minions. "Retrieve them at once," he commanded as the small army of creatures were sucked through a dark, swirling portal.

* * *

"This way!" the group rushed through the tunnel and toward the cluster of light that was ahead of them, and found themselves outside a small grassy knoll.

"Compass, does anyone have a compass?" Ethan asked, trying to catch his breath.

"Compass? Who still uses a compass?" Conner rolled his eyes as he whipped out a smartphone before frowning in disappointment.

"No signal?" Vert turned to Conner and asked as the teenage jock nodded in frustration.

"Let me try!" Neptune said as she pulled out a flip-phone, with similar results to Conner's. "Aww shucks!"

As all seven climbed up to the surface, a bone-chilling gust of wind rushed past them, causing the students to come to a sudden stop and check their surroundings.

"W-What was that?" Noire asked tensely, not liking the bad feeling she had one bit.

"The wind?" Kira asked hopefully.

"That ain't the wind," Ethan gulped nervously, unsure what to expect next. "As much as we like it to be, it ain't..."

"You're all overracting," Conner responded to the group in an attempt to reassure them. "I'm sure it's just a small breez—"

About a dozen black scaly creatures suddenly appeared out of nowhere and surrounded them.

"Yikes! Well, those aren't the typical pixelvaders and dogoos you come across every day..." Neptune jumped in shock.

"Don't. Move," the soccer player whispered nervously, hoping that these creature wouldn't discover them...

"Smart. Let's make it easy for them why don't you!" Kira hissed back as the creatures slowly approached the group.

"You were saying about a rigged booby-trap?" Noire sarcastically asked Neptune as she turned to face the small crowd of monsters. "How about we just put back the gems where we foun—"

"You outta' your mind?" Blanc blurted angrily, eyeing at on of the monsters with a sharp glare.

"Alright, new plan... RUN!" Ethan shouted as the seven took off as fast as they could, trying to get away from the strange dinosaur like creatures.

"Hey, what the—?" Blanc shouted as Vert pulled the petite schoolgirl away from the creatures and ran alongside the others.

"Now's not the time to be overcompensating," Vert replied as she began to scratch and rub her eyes in discomfort. Did a chip of wood or dirt happen to get stuck in her eye as she ran for dear life, causing her to have to rub her eyes profusely?

As they continued to run through the forest, Conner and Ethan, and Neptune leapt over a ditch, closely followed by Noire and Blanc. But as for Kira and Vert, their attempt to follow the other seven failed as they missed the edge and slide into the ditch, the latter being too blind to see where she was going, as her hands still covered her eyes aching in pain somehow.

"Oh no!" the other five shouted, as they ran back to pull the singer and class-president out of the small pit.

They managed to quickly grab Kira out of the gully. But before Noire and Neptune could drag Vert out, the class-president suddenly opened her eyes at the approaching monsters before unleashing a beam of focused, green light out from her eyes, instantly piercing through the creatures. As the intense rays of energy had begun to dissipate before fading completely, Vert's vision returned to normal without any pain or swelling.

"Whoa!" Neptune and the others shouted as they say gazed at the nearly vaporized bodies.

"Oh my," Vert opened her mouth in surprise as she examined the small stream of scorched bits lying in front of her. "Did I do that?" she asked herself before suddenly pulling out the green gem in her pocket and examining it, which appeared to be glowing even brighter than earlier. Just then, an image of an emerald-colored unicorn suddenly appeared in her head.

"C'mon!" Conner shouted as more of the monsters began to chase towards them. "We need to go, now!" he said as the seven students ran for dear life.

With an injured foot from earlier, Kira soon tripped on a small snare as they made their way through the forest, the monsters right on their trail, ready to lunge at her. As the group turned around to help the musician back up, Neptune and the others were forced to cover their ears shut with a groan when Kira suddenly let out a loud, blood-curdling scream of yellow pulsating waves at her pursuers, surprisingly pushing them back with a few even sent flying by the sonic attack.

"Whoa, Black Canary!" Neptune commented in a baffled expression.

"Okay, what in the world was that?" Noire asked as she and the others helped her up again.

"I have no idea!" the musician admitted shakily, before looking down at the glowing yellow gem in her hand and blinked as she was hit with the image of a yellow banshee.

"Uh-oh," Neptune nervously commented as she observed a patrol of monsters surrounding them. "Looks like we need to fight our way out..."

"Good," Blanc said with a vicious glare at the monster in front her before cracking her knuckles. "I've been looking to take my frustration out on these ugly bastards!" she shouted, slugging one in the face despite her short stature. Instinctively, the seven then split up and ran in different directions before getting stopped a group of two or three monsters each.

Running frantically, Noire skidded to a stop as a pair of creatures instantly charged at her. The twintail ravenette kicked one in the shin as she barely managed to dodge the other's attack. Unfortunately, one of the monster managed to catch her fist as they pinned her to the side of a tree, tightly gripping her arm.

Tears began to form in Noire's eyes as she stared in horror before closing her eyes, waiting for the creature to finish her off with it's scythe like weapon. But before it could, however , the girl's body suddenly shifted to a transparent shade of black; in which Noire phased behind the tree and escaped the monster's grip. Another creature then jumped from above and prepared to strike at her from above. Instead of slashing her, it's claws simply went through her, now having its claws stuck on the ground.

"Huh—?" Noire's asked herself as she lowered her arms, prepared to brace for the attack that never came. Her jaw then dropped in complete surprise as watched her cloudy body before returning to normal. "Did I just survive that?" The ravenette tsundere pulled out her glowing black gem and blinked as she got hit with an image of a black-shrouded phoenix.

...

Neptune swerved and weaved her way through the wooded grounds, tossing twigs, ducking under branches, and simply doing whatever she could to get away from these fiendish creatures. An idea then popped up in her head...

"Waiiiiit!" she suddenly turned around and shouted before pulling her handheld from earlier this morning in her pocket and holding it out in front of her in desperation, pleading. "Please don't hurt me— Huh?!"

As she offered it to the blindly approaching monsters, however, the device began to surge with purple electricity arcing from her fingertips, catching her surprise. The sudden burst of energy then caused her gaming handheld to shatter into a million pieces, sending a scattershot of charged improvised shrapnel lodged in the monster's heads.

"Holy shit! I'm like Static Shock!" Neptune shouted aloud in joy as she tossed the remaining scrap of metal in her hand towards the sole survivor of the purple onslaught, electrocuting it instantly. Soon after, a vision of a might purple skydragon flashed before her eyes.

...

"Oooof!" Ethan was knocked back coughing as one of these... whatever they were, punched him in the gut. Two of the monsters grabbed him by the back as the helpless computer geek tried to kick another in front of him, only to have his foot caught before getting tossed to the side. He got up and winced in pain as the monsters tried to charge him, their claws at the ready. Ethan nervously raised his arms out of instinct to brace for the incoming attack, only to have their strikes completely bounce off him with a loud clink; his forearms covered in a metallic blue coating and completely unharmed.

Ethan painlessly tossed back one of the creatures, staring at his own transformed skin as he pulled out the glowing blue gem in his pocket, suddenly filling him with the image of a large blue behemoth.

"Now this is awesome." the computer geek said in amusement as he began to beat the incoming creatures senseless.

...

"I can do this all day you pieces of crap!" A slightly bruised and battered Blanc spat out in a bloodthirsty shout towards the mass of creatures. Considering all the mess she's gone through already today, this simply felt like the best way to release her pent-up anger from all day. Beginning to feel exhausted, part of her _almost_ wished she didn't become the first one to charge into combat, part of her.

"G-Get off me! Get off!" the short highschooler bookworm violently shouted as she headbutt one of the footsoldiers, only for another one nearby to grab her arm as she tried to sucker-punch a third. Struggling to free herself, the white gem in Blanc's pocket began to glow intensely as a blast of frigid, cold air shot out of her hands, turning one of the nearby monsters into a frozen popsicle.

"Ice-powers?" Blanc asked herself as she noticed the creature grabbing her glazed in frost before suddenly shattering like glass. "A girl could get used to this," she mumbled, placing her arms in the chest of two others goons, intensely focusing on the vision of a white frost giant that suddenly appeared in her head; the two monster's body instantly became solidified in ice.

...

"Is that the best you've got?" Conner taunted as one of the monsters knocked him towards the ground. As he groggily struggled to get up from the ground, the red gem slipped out of his pocket and into his hands. Upon gazing at the intense red light emanating from his gem, the soccer athlete was suddenly met with a vision of a swooping red griffin as time began to slow down around him with a loud pulse.

When one of the footsoldiers begun to charge at him, Conner suddenly sprung up and quickly jump-kicked the creature before noticing that they were moving much slowing than motion before. Though in actuality, they were moving at their normal speed; it was Conner that had suddenly much quicker with sharper reflexes.

"Hah, you guys aren't so tough!" shouted the rejuvenated jock with his newfound power, as several move monsters proceeded to slowly rush him. This time, however, Conner had easily overpowered them, taking on several at a time and swiftly knocking each one down in the process before time around him began to return to normal.

...

"Over here!" everyone heard the red-outfit soccer player shout as the monsters began to flee and run away.

The entire pack of seven students managed to regroup together as they held onto the mysterious crystals in bewilderment; each of whom had just fought off a horde of monstrous goons, in their own right. And judging from the looks on their faces alone, something majorly freaky must have happened to them too

"Did anyone else just suddenly get freaky super-powers out've nowhere?" Neptune asked as everyone but Noire appeared to walk out with satisfied smirks on their faces.

"Wait, how did y—"

"—Cause' I can shoot lightning out of my fingertips like a Sith Lord, silly!" Neptune replied to the curious Blanc, tossing her purple crystal around before continuing. "Kinda like how Kira here can scream like an angry housewife or how Vert can fire friggin' lazer beams outta' her eyes!" she shouted.

"I was able to see their skeletons as well" Vert clarified, looking at the green crystal in her hand. "Maybe this gem allows me to see through objects, like that truck over there driving behind the hil—"

"X-ray vision! Even better!" Neptune interrupted.

"Yo, how much do I love detention or what!" Ethan exclaimed, happily holding his blue gem out.

"Who knew detention would be this stress-reliving?" Blanc quietly shrugged with a blank expression while she held her white gem, in contrast to the small scrapes and bruises scattered on her face.

"This isn't a joke, everyone. We shouldn't even be having these in the first place," Noire protested."Let's go back and put these back where they belo—"

"Sheesh, no need to be such a party-pooper, Noire," Neptune teased. "I bet your power was something boring too, like invisibility. Since you don't have any friends and all..."

"S-S-Shut up! My powers don't have anything to do with this, Neptune!" Noire screeched with a completely flustered face in embarrassment. "And I'm not a party-pooper; I do have friends!"

"Little sisters don't count as friends," Neptune told her with a smug grin. "And I was right, you do have a boring power too!"

The others couldn't help but laugh at the humorous banter between the two.

"W-Why you!" Noire said to Neptune, getting even more flustered and embarrassed.

"Quick," Kira interrupted the entire group. "Someone's coming," she told them, hearing footsteps from a distance as the seven teens quickly pocketed their gemstones before anyone else could see them.

"Hey!" the students quickly looked up and immediately spotted Dr. Tennouboshi rushing towards them before continuing. "You guys alright?"

"Yeah, we're totally fine," Vert replied with a fake smile, then turned to the others. "Right, everyone?"

"Couldn't be better," Ethan agreed, smiling nervously.

"Fine and dandy," Kira nodded.

"Peachy keen," Neptune added with two thumbs up.

"Nothing out of the ordinary happen?" their new teacher asked.

"No, no... just your typical hike in the woods," Ethan insisted, as the rest nodding in agreement.

"With dogoos, cuberials, and some furry creatures..." Vert added, nodding with a smile.

"And a few scaly ones too," Kira muttered, earning a confused look from the science teacher.

"...with some rough terrain..." Blanc said with a blank stare, as Uzume noticed the short schoolgirl having a few minor cuts and bruises on herself.

"So, did you get into the zoo-aquarium thingy?" Conner chimed in asking, diverting the attention away from the singer, and injured-looking girl.

"They're apparently still under renovation or something," she lied to them, then nudged her head towards the car. "We'd better get you guys back, come on."

"So are we still getting out of detention or what?"

"Uh... sure, why not?" Dr. Tennouboshi shrugged as she continued towards her off-road truck.

"Yes!"

"Don't you all think we should tell her?" Noire whispered, as they started walking.

"As if!" Neptune told her, pouting. "This cute little rock is mine and mine alone," she added, petting the pocket that contained her crystal. "My precious... my precious..."

"I'm pretty sure she's talking about the powers," Kira commented.

"Not an option," Vert added, shaking her head. "Do you have any idea what would happen to us if anyone found out about this?"

"You mean like how Randall found out about your dirty magazines?" Kira sarcastically jeered at the class-president.

"I don't know about you, but I've got about a million sci-fi DVD's," Ethan nodded in agreement. "And you wanna know how many times the guy with the superpowers ends up in some government lab, lying on a table with wires prodded in his head?"

"...and turned against his will into a killer assassin?" Blanc merely added.

"Even I know that," Conner agreed. "Last thing I want to be captured by some evil government thingy and have needles sticking out of my head."

"Hey, you guys coming or what?" Uzume called them, already inside the car and honking the steering wheel. The seven glanced at each other with a sigh before catching up.

* * *

"Okay, so we all agree?" Conner asked, as the seven of them walked together through the school campus. "No one talks about this, not to anyone, no matter what?"

"I can do better than that," Kira quickly stepped in front of the group, making them stop as she handed the soccer player a yellow gem. "I'm out. Just forget I was here, and I'll do the same," she told them.

"Same," Blanc quietly nodded before dumping her white gemstone into the same hand. "If this is like any of my light novels, the hero with superpowers always gets screwed over..."

"Wait, how come _he_ gets it?" Ethan whined.

"Yeah, why don't I get one too?" Neptune added, as the other five rolled their eyes in annoyance.

"Well, here!" Kira grabbed the two gems from Conner's hand then placed one in Ethan's and Neptune's hands each; both of whom couldn't help but smirk.

"Now both of you can have one. Problem solved." Blanc said with an annoyed glare.

The seven went on to argue with each other for several moments before both Kira and Blanc finally snapped.

"You know what? I give up!" Kira threw her hands up in the air before storming off.

"Screw all of you," Blanc exclaimed as she walked away. "I never asked for this crap goddammit,"

"Ugh—! Don't just walk away from this! We have a responsibility!" Noire shouted in protest at the two angrily, then handed her black gem to Vert. "Hold on to this. I'm going to talk some sense into those two," she said to the class president before chasing towards Kira and Blanc.

...

"So... do you wanna trade for the white one?" Neptune asked Ethan curiously out of the blue. "Purple and white don't really match together..."

Before the computer geek could decline her offer, the five suddenly heard a scream from Kira, Blanc and Noire crying out; the exact same monster's that had attacked them in the forest earlier surrounded the three girls.

"Get away you freaks!" the singer shouted as she and the other two struggled to escape their capture.

"Oh no!" Conner yelled as him and the others raced to rescue the girls. But just as they were about to reach them, the scaly black creatures suddenly disappeared into a dark vortex, taking Kira, Noire, and Blanc with them.

"They're gone!" Ethan panicked, picking up Kira's backpack lying on the ground.

"Oh, this is so beyond bad!" Neptune also stated as she held Noire and Blanc's bookbags in distress. "Who am I supposed to tease now?"

* * *

Conner, Ethan, Vert, and Neptune sped down an empty street in the soccer player's muscle car.

"Hey, I thought I called shotgun!" Neptune complained as she sat in the back with Vert to her right.

"And annoy me even more? I'll pass," Conner joked as he rolled his eyes in annoyance along with Ethan and Vert, then turned towards the two. "So, where're we going?" he asked them.

"Hmm... Dr. Tennouboshi's place?" Vert suggested with a weak shrug.

"What's she going to do?" Conner and Neptune both shouted in confusion.

"She's a biology professor, she must know what these things are!" Ethan exclaimed, pulling out his Laptop. "These things are dinosaur-ish, sort of! I think?"

"Alright, where does he live?" Conner asked, hand gesturing the the two to hurry up.

"Uh, 271 Grove Street?!" Ethan read out loud from his computer screen.

"Grove Street?" Neptune scratched her head. "Dr. Ten-new-bow-she lives in the middle of downtown?"

"Wait, wrong address," Vert suggested as she reached over and clicked the correct address on Ethan's laptop. "It's 907 Fairway Palmer-Lane."

"Fairway," Conner muttered to himself before making a sharp U-turn towards the place. "That's way out in the woods isn't it?" he frowned.

* * *

After an quick drive, the four had found Uzume's house and quickly got out of the car before rushing over to the front porch.

Ethan knocked loudly on the door as Conner, Neptune, and Vert checked the windows checked the windows for any sign of the science teacher.

"Helloooooo!" Neptune shouted. "Anyone in there?!"

"Knock again," Conner told Ethan after he didn't get a response from the first one.

Ethan knocked again. Still no response.

"Now what?" Ethan asked, looking at the jock in annoyance.

Conner quickly walked over and lightly pushed his hand against the door, which slowly opened.

"Someone already broke into the house?" Neptune asked quizzically.

"What are you doing?" Ethan demanded, as Conner moved to slowly walk inside.

"Well why would he leave it unlocked?" the jock shrugged, pointing toward the opened door.

"Probably cause' she doesn't have any neighbors," Ethan pointed out, and Conner just grinned slightly.

"What? You never heard of the three bears?" he asked, and walked inside.

"Is that the last book you read?"

"Gentlemen please," Vert frowned as she passed in between the two boys. "This isn't the time to argue," she told them in a slightly stern voice before the two stopped.

* * *

They carefully walked into what they were pretty sure her study room, calling out for their science teacher, but still no answer.

"There's some stairway behind that wall over there," Vert's eyes began glowing green as she pointed to the bookcase on the other side of the room, obviously using her newly-found x-ray vision powers.

"Yeah, so how do we get through it?" Neptune asked the hime-cut blonde before examining underneath the tables and stools for any clues. "We can't just go blasting holes throughout this room. We open it with some magical key that—"

"Found it," Conner stated as the others gathered around a small vintage videogame console with its cartridge not fully placed in. "Ladies, come check it out," the soccer player smirked as he was about to jam the blank game cartridge in.

"Hey, remember the last time you did that?" Ethan warned, catching the jock's hand before he could press down on the device.

"Relax," Conner scoffed at the computer nerd, sliding the old component in with his other arm. "The guy's a science teacher not—"

As soon as cartridge fit in with a satisfying 'click', the bookcase ahead of them slid open, revealing a small, narrow staircase going downwards.

"...Batman?"

"Or a Professor Xavier, in this case," Vert suggested.

"But she's not bald or crippled yet," Neptune argued as they made their down the flight of stairs.

* * *

The four carefully walked down the stairs and found themselves staring at the same exact room they had been standing in only a few hours ago.

"This is the same place!" Vert hissed as they looked around in frustration.

"Anyone freaking out right now?" Conner asked.

"Not really," Neptune giggled. "But I did find a blue floating fish," she told them before lifting up Umio, who appeared top be struggling to get off.

"W-What are you all doing here?" the fish-like creature asked in a mix of confusion and surprise, tail-slapping the lilac-haired girl's arms in order to free himself before continuing. "You all shouldn't be here!"

"Why not?" Conner raised an eyebrow asking.

"Crazy lab? Weird fish with a human face? Scooby-Doo trap-doors? Yup, I'm _definitely_ freaking out!" Ethan muttered.

"If you're all looking for extra credit," the four students instantly spun around to see Uzume standing in front of them, looking at them completely unimpressed. "You've come to the wrong place."

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, that's a wrap everyone. Nearly 15,000 words for just a single chapter? Sheesh. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed the intro chapter to this AU Power Ranger x Neptunia crossover fic so far. Since this is an alternate universe setting after all, instead of getting the Bio-Zords like in Dino Thunder, they'll be getting new zords based off legendary/mythical animals.

I tried coming up with these to sort've fit/matcht their civilian-powers and personalities, or (also) in the four Neptunia character's cases specifically, their CPU/NEXT forms as well? (If anyone has a place to talk about Power Rangers zords ideas, be sure to let me know, I suppose...) And don't worry, I do plan on adding Trent down the line as a '6th ranger', just not exactly as the white one. Rest assured, I don't intend on doing any harem pairings or hack/slash-pairings either, just like my other crossover story.

Speaking of Among Titans and Goddesses, I apologize for the long delay for its next chapter. Along with juggling others personal tasks and side stories, I'm currently doing a re-playthrough of Re;Birth1, trying to recall all the other monsters they used in that game (specifically all the machines used by Avenir and whatnot...).

That being said, I hope you all enjoyed this intro-chapter so far. Part II will be coming real soon, revealing a bit more of Uzume's past (possibly involving the events of VII?). Please be sure to rate and review, as it boosts my ego and allows me to see what to focus on more/less. Thanks again!


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hyperdimension Neptunia or Power Rangers franchises. Both belong to their respective owners (Idea Factory International and Saban Brands).

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Day of the CPUs (Part II)**

"Dr. T, before you go off on us, can we like, just explain why we're here?" Ethan asked as he, Neptune, and Conner backed away nervously while Vert stood in place.

"Dude," Conner whispered to the computer geek in protest. "She's just going to laugh if we tell her."

"Doubt it," Neptune replied, discretely pointing at Umio. "She has a giant pet fish with a goofy face, she HAS to believe us!"

"What other choice do we have?" Ethan added. "Just look at everything here, she'll believe us."

"Alright," Conner huffed before turning to the biology teacher glaring at them angrily. "Kira, Blanc, and Noire are gone."

"They got taken by these freaky, weird-looking dinosaur things at school," Ethan added to the confused Uzume standing in front of them.

"Look, we're sorry for intruding like this," Vert calmly approached the professor. "But they were kidnapped by the same monsters we came across in the forest earlier today," she explained. "We were hoping you might be able to help in getting them back."

"Blondie, she doesn't look convinced" Conner said to the concerned class-president as the four watched their science teacher's expression instantly change from anger to a look of horror.

"...Tyrannodrones," Uzume said to the teens, walking over to and picking up her fish companion before quietly cursing to herself. 'Could've sworn _he_ destroyed them ages ago in another timeline...'

"Is that what those large scaly ones are called?" Neptune asked. "What about those zombie looking ones with the scythes and stuff?"

"Undead creatures resurrected from the Gamindustri graveyard," Uzume told them as Umio hopped off Dr. Tennouboshi's arms before going to a nearby computer terminal.

"Cool, so like some twisted Frankenstein thingys for a science fair, eh?" Neptune asked curiously.

"And you know about this because..." Vert crossed her arms in a look of disapproval at the biology teacher.

"Let's just say... they... both of them, have some history against me; or whoever's controlling them, at least."

"Research project gone wrong?" Ethan asked curiously as Uzume turned towards her fish companion.

"As if," Neptune snickered. "More like somebody must've destroyed their home," she joked. "Habitat displacement, am I right?"

"Wow, I'm impressed." Ethan sarcastically glared at Neptune in annoyance. "That's a big word for you to use."

"Oh shaddup'. I'm smart when I wanna be—," Neptune retorted, only to be interrupted by the biology teacher and her 'pet' fish.

"It's a long story," Uzume sighed, her tone clearly filled with a mix of frustration and guilt, knowing that it was partially her fault for Kira, Blanc, and Noire's current predicament.

"For now, we need to know what they want with our—... I mean, your friends, " Umio said, shaking his head as he stared at a monitor.

"It might have something... to do with these," Connor replied nervously as he approached the fish and teacher before pulling out a yellow, black, and white gem in front of them.

"...So that's where they went," Umio quietly said as Uzume's jaw dropped in horror.

* * *

In another unknown location,

"My lord, I have captured three of the people who have touched the gems," an ominous figure said as it faced a dark, ghostly, holographic image.

"Good, bring me their sharicite crystals at once," Mesogog heard the ghostly projection replying telepathically as the reptilian creature turned and stared at the three girls lying unconscious in front of him.

'Soon, the power of the Dark CPUs shall rise again and rule this world,' the dark, silent, brooding figure that sat behind the holographic projection thought to itself. 'I will have my vengeance back on the world that has forsaken me!'

* * *

"We're really sorry," Conner apologized for what seemed like the umpteenth time, as Uzume held the seven colored gems in her hands. "How were we supposed to know those things were going to have, like superpowers, and those lizard-zombie-robot dudes were going to come after them?" he pointed out, which made Dr. Tennouboshi sigh.

"I guess it isn't exactly something you see everyday," she muttered.

"Sort've like a science teacher with the ruins of an ancient civilization under her house," Ethan suggested as he looked around the room.

"I mean, not that this isn't really awesome and all," Conner added. "But seriously dude, you gotta come clean with this kind of stuff," he told her. "Not cool, not cool at all..."

"Okay first of all, don't call me _dude_ ," Dr. Tennouboshi growled with a frown. "Second of all, you don't get to tell me what is or isn't cool," she continued. "And thirdly, as hard as this may seem, you all need to forget this ever happened, I'll find the girls myself."

"But—"

"Uzume, you can't be serious—" Umio protested to his friend, knowing full well that they couldn't just 'undo' everything that's happened.

"You four already caused more than enough damage for one day," Uzume told them, then started heading towards the staircase before getting stopped by Conner, as the teenager suddenly used his new speed to zoom in front of her.

"I don't think so!" Neptune shouted as a small bolt of electricity suddenly fired from her fingertips toward the wall to the side of Uzume and Conner. "We're going too!"

"Hmm, so the crystal's powers have already starting to bond with each of you," Dr. Tennouboshi commented with a slightly impressed smile on her face. "I should've known—"

"You can tell us all about it now, or at my next parent/teacher conference." Conner glared. "Your choice..."

"I'm sure HR would love to have a field day with this too," Vert added with a serious expression as the science teacher's grin instantly disappeared.

"Look, we know that we messed up big time by stealing these things," Neptune spoke up with a surprisingly serious change of attitude, stepping besides Conner. "But please, _please_ let us make things right by helping to find Noire and the others," Neptune pleaded with a face of genuine concern.

'Hmm... so she really is like Nepsy after all, isn't she?' Uzume thought to herself and let out a sigh, knowing she basically had no other choice.

"Alright, come on," she told the four, who grinned at each other and followed her out of the hidden lab. "Umio, make sure to pinpoint our location," she ordered the fish companion before facing her students. "I'll fill you all in on there way there..."

* * *

"Ugggh, my aching head," Blanc said with a groggy headache as she, Kira, and Noire all began to wake up on a table

"You're telling me," Noire added, noticing the other girls beside her before the three stood up from the table "Are you two okay?"

"Yeah," Kira replied as she looked around to see that she was in some kind of lab. "So, where are we?" she asked the others.

"How the heck did we even get here?" Blanc quiet asked as she and the other girls suddenly heard a loud hiss.

All three turned around to see a large, reptilian-like monster right in front of Kira as she suddenly jumped up in shock and backed away from the creature in fear.

"The Sharicites... where are they?" the ominous figure demanded.

Blanc proceeded to back away from the the monster as she bumped into something and heard another loud noise. The three then turned around again to see that the monster had gotten right behind the short, petite, light brown-haired girl somehow.

"I have waited, far too long, to allow an insignificant teenager to get in the Dark CPU's way" the same creature said even louder.

All three of then turned in the opposite direction, only to see the reptilian monster now approaching Noire.

"Tell me where... the gems are!" it hissed angrily.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about!" Noire screamed in a panicked manner. "Vert and I were just about to return them whe—"

"Look bub," Blanc irritably walked towards the figure. "I already gave my gem to that idiot soccer meathead earlier," she said to the monster's face.

"Same, you're going to have to ask them about it." Kira added, slowly backing away. "So can I go now? I need to get home, my mom is going to freak if I'm late for taco night."

"Yeah, and I have two younger brats to take care of back home," Blanc screamed at in anger before the figure suddenly vanished.

"Wh-What just happened?!" Noire fell back in shock.

"You'll be lucky to even see your family again..." another voice said.

Kira and the others turned around as they saw a new threat; a woman with dark, leather clothing, short hair, and long nail claws.

"You got a name?" Kira asked, slowly backing away. "Cause' you kinda look familiar..."

"My creator calls me Elsa,"

"Creator?"Noire said in surprise.

"Look lady, or Elsa, or whatever the hell your master calls you," Blanc snapped at the leather-skinned woman, then gestured at the two other girls before turning around and walking away. "I don't know about Tweedledee and Tweedledum here, but I'm getting out've here—"

Before Blanc could finish her comment, the woman grabbed the short teen by the shoulder and began to attack all three girls.

"Hiya!" the three girls instinctively began to block each attack thrown by the mysterious woman as they soon struck the woman in a counterattack.

"That was an accident, I swear!" Noire shouted in disbelief as she instinctively landed a punch to her face. "Can't we just talk this out?!"

"Woah… I _so_ did not mean to do that." Kira told the warrior woman soon after striking a kick to her chest and sending her back.

Elsa growled at them as she held her injured arm, causing the three to run in the opposite direction before getting stopped by another figure approaching them with a small group of footsoldiers they came across earlier. The main figure was a tall woman with pale, almost light purple, skin wearing a witch-like outfit with many purple and gold accents.

"Meet Arfoire," Elsa said as she got up from behind.

"You two in _that_ kind of relationship?" Kira asked nervously. "Or are you two just BFFs?"

"Outta' my way!" Blanc interrupted as she got in front of the two other teenagers and slammed her hands on the ground, instantly freezing all but Arfoire, who appeared to ready to launch a fireball at the three.

"Look out!" Noire shouted as she grabbed onto the musician and bookworm out of panic and instinct. Just as she did, the three instantly turned into a black, ghostly transparent color. Kira then unleashed a floor-shuddering scream at Arfoire, causing the witch to get knocked back and her fireball attack prematurely detonating in a large blast between the two. Despite the scorch marks covering exit side of the room, Kira and the others stood up unscathed, or even untouched for that matter; as if the blast literally went past them.

"Get them!" Elsa screamed in anger as the three ran as fast as they could down the hallways of the villains' hide out. They kept on running until reaching a dead end where a mysterious portal was present.

"C'mon!" Kira hesitated in going through it, but reconsidered as she heard the sounds of roars and Elsa's screams of anger.

"You're sure that's a good ideAAAAAAAAAA—" Noire asked, but was soon shove into the portal along with Kira by Blanc

"Move!" Blanc yelled as she and the others jumped and entered the portal before disappearing.

* * *

Speeding down an empty driveway, the five sat in Uzume's truck while the teacher explained what was going on; Ethan riding shotgun, while Neptune, Conner, and Vert sat in the back.

"So, when you mentioned about those things that attacked us having some beef against you," Neptune asked. "You were just kidding, right? Like some morbid joke?"

"I wish," Uzume sighed. "A few years back, Umio and I were researching the effects of temporal space rifts and it's impact on the local wildlife," she told them half-truthfully.

"You and the fish?" Ethan asked. "Oh, so now you also happen to be an astrophysicist, are you?"

"His name is Umio," their science teacher said with an annoyed look as she ignored the second question. "Anyways, while we were exploring uncharted territory, we uncovered something we probably should've never had in the first place."

"In other words, you opened up Pandora's box?" Vert asked. "Awakened an unknown horde isolated for who-know's how long, I assume."

"Basically," Uzume nodded. "Turns out, all those creatures were created, or brought here, by someone hell-bent on trying to rule everything in darkness."

"Who, exactly?"

"An extradimensional being that's _apparently_ traveled across different universes; calls herself 'Kurome'," Dr. Tennouboshi said with a heavy heart, knowing fully well a portion of the truth and lies behind her words. "Says that she wants take revenge on something back on her home world."

"That seems pretty dangerous indeed," Vert inquired. "So, what'd you do?"

"Did what had to be done," Dr. Tennouboshi replied, shrugging. "Destroyed the place to kingdom come; erased every last trace of their dangerous existence. Least', I thought I did."

"You can't be serious, can you?" Neptune asked, raising an eyebrow. "Rule the world in darkness? Other worlds? You're sure this isn't some videogame or something?"

"More serious than you could imagine," their science teacher shook her head, switching the conversation. "C'mon, you all know the story of how it all began, don't you?"

"Huh?"

"Didn't they you anything in preschool Nepsy—, Neptune?" Uzume scolded the ditzy teen.

'Good grief, I'm not originally from this world, and even I know how more about this place than you,' Dr. Tennouboshi though to herself before getting interrupted by the passengers beside her.

"You mean about the four goddesses that once ruled the world over thousands of years ago?" Vert asked curiously.

"Yeah," Ethan added. "And how they sacrificed their lives to unite the four nations together? That whole story or whatever?"

"Isn't that just a bedtime story that was read to us as kids to help us sleep at night?" Conner mocked. "There's no way all of that actually happened."

"What if I told you all of it was, in-fact, true?" Uzume told them. "Thousands of years ago, long before you or I, the four goddesses that once ruled this world sacrificed themselves and brought the four ancient landmasses together, bringing peace and harmony," she pulled to a stop at an intersection and added. "At least, until now."

'Didn't think she would have amassed such a large force so quickly,' the disgruntled teacher thought to herself. 'Dammit, I was so worried about trying to return home with Umio, that I didn't even think that she'd survive and escape the blast. And now she also has all my experiences from travelling across worlds? Shi—!'

"And you think this 'Kurome' character is after the gems?" Vert asked, interrupting the biology teacher's train of thought.

"They're called Sharicites," Uzume corrected her. "But yeah, it seems like it," she said gravely.

"Look, this history story is all totally fascinating and all, but how is it going to help us find Kira and the others?" Ethan questioned, turning to the three in the back. "I mean, it's not like they're just gonna fall out of the sky and land right in front of us—"

Before the anyone could say anything else, a flash of dark energy had suddenly flashed and Kira fell on top of the hood along with Blanc, with Noire faceplanting on the nearby pavement in front of the vehicle.

"Oooof—!" they all heard with a thud.

"You were saying?" Conner replied.

"RNG does it yet again!" Neptune shouted with a victorious fist-pump as the five just stared silently at each other for a moment before rushing out of the car to help the three girls up.

"How'd you all do that?" Ethan asked in amazement, as they helped everyone up.

"I have no idea," Kira answered, clearly just as confused as the rest of them. "One minute, I'm being chased by Franken-lizard through his creepy lab along with leatherwoman and granny-wicked-witch, then the next thing I know... I'm a hood ornament!"

"At least we're not the road bump," Blanc replied coldly, pointing at the unfortunate twintail-tsundere lying nearby.

"Wormholes?" Uzume sighed, glancing up at the sky.

"Whatever, next time I'm calling an uber," Kira shrugged, then looked at the four teens with a raised eyebrow. "What are you all even doing here anyway?"

"We came to rescue you, silly!" Neptune told her, patting the musician in the back.

"Nice job, way to show up right when I don't need you anymore," Kira rolled her eyes with an irritable frown.

Just then, she and the others saw a group of the Tyrannodrone monsters along with a few other monsters being led by Arfoire appear ahead of them, the same way Kira and the other two had just moments ago.

"Uhh... you're sure about that?" Conner asked as the monster led by a witch approached them.

"Let me guess, is Kurome too much of a coward to do the dirty work herself?" Dr. Tennouboshi glared at the old woman, standing in front of the seven students before pulling out her megaphone in a combat-like stance.

"You are in no place to speak _her_ name, swine." Arfoire growled. "Come with me, or be destroyed where you stand!"

"Don't you think we should just give her th—?" Noire was about to suggest before getting suddenly interrupted by the biology teacher.

"Yeah, I think I'm going to have to say no," Uzume said to the witch as she adjusted the dial on her megaphone, getting into a fighting stance.

"Get them!" Arfoire shouted, sending out small group of soldiers at them. The seven teens took them on separately, leaving their teacher to deal with the leader.

Noire dodged and weaved every strike as she attempted to evade the monsters. She then turned around to see one monster with its arms out ready for an overhead strike. Out of instinct, Noire closed her eyes shut as she attempted to shove the creature out of her way, only to notice moments later that she phased through the enemy's attack and was actually grabbing the inside the creature's spine. Noticing this, she immediately yanked her hand out and tried to jump away, unaware that she was holding on to the monster's spinal cord as it easily tore right out of the soldier's torso and face in an explosion of blood and gore, much to the poor girl's horror.

"W-W-What just happened!?" the blood-soaked Noire screamed with a horrified expression, gazing at the severed mechanical spine in her hands.

"Rip and tear!" Neptune shouted jokingly upon noticing the splash of blood and giblets surrounding the blood-soaked ravenette and unfortunate corpse. She then turned to the side and kangaroo-kicked a monster in the shins before climbing up a utility pole. Grabbing the power-box, or transformer, she immediately felt a surge of energy coursing through her before tearing it off and belly-flopping towards a large group of monsters with it in her hand.

"Geronimo!" She shouted before slamming on the ground with the overloaded electrical device with a large shockwave, tossing all the nearby creatures around her in a large surge of cackling energy.

Kira had used her sonic scream on a group of the monstrous creature, effectively taking them down. She dodged a swipe from a Tyrannodrone, aiming to behead her, then kicked it in the chest and sent it a good few feet back with a surprising somersault kick. The musician smirked as another charged her, but she back flipped away from the charging creature before hopping off another's shoulder and unleashing another sonic scream from behind the horde of enemies.

"Okay, that's just crazy!" She said aloud, seeing that she had taken care of her set of enemies in front of her.

"Hey Kira, look out!" Neptune turned and shouted, pointing to another Tyrannodrone that was about to jump Kira from behind. "Behind you!"

But before the monster could successfully ambush Kira from behind, a green laser beam was fired right above the musician's head, knocking back the Tyrannodrone instantly.

"Whoa!" Neptune shouted as as both her and Kira turned to see the laser beam had come from Vert's eyes.

"Sheesh, watch where you're shooting!" the musician said in a surprised and slightly worried voice.

"Sorry about that," Vert apologized. "Still trying to get used to this."

...

"Now you see me..." Conner smirked to the charging monsters as he simply dodged past them with his newfound speed abilities. The young soccer player then delivered a heavy kick to one of the creatures from behind, sending it face-first into the ground. "...And now you're unconscious."

The jock then turned to Ethan, who appeared to be easily taking the footsoldiers down without a scratch, blocking each strike that the creatures tried to throw at him with his armored skin.

"So, how many you gotten so far?" He asked. Seemed like the two boys were _actually_ having a competition on who could take down the most quickly.

"Six so far, you?" Ethan asked back to his temporary partner as the computer nerd kicked up a large wooden crate and tossed it at a nearby monster, knocking it unconscious.

"Seven," Conner answered in a carefree voice, delivering a swift fury of kicks to another footsoldier. "Make that eight," he added.

The two suddenly turned their heads as they heard a loud screech from the top of a small ledge above them, only to notice two frozen Tyrannodrones fall right in front of their feet before shattering into pieces.

"Nineteen..." Blanc said in a slightly amused voice towards the two surprised boys, freezing and tossing a third footsoldier on the ground before jumping down from the small cliff and dusting her hands off as she walked away. "Too easy."

"Dude, remind me to seriously _not_ get on her bad side," Ethan whispered to the soccer athlete, both of which were at a loss of words from what they saw moments ago.

"You mean like what happened _earlier_ today?" Conner replied to the computer geek with a grin, impressed at the short girl's frozen and shattered corpses left behind.

...

Once their groups of footsoldiers were taken care of, the seven quickly rushed over back to their teacher, who was glaring at the witch leader. Just moments ago, Uzume had unleashed a fury of blows and kicks on Arfoire; the last hit with a megaphone blast sending her into the pavement and falling to her knees.

"Be sure you tell your 'so-called' master," the sanguine-haired teacher said as she straightened herself up smirked confidently at Arfiore. "That Uzume Tennouboshi is back!" she told the leader, pointing a thumb at herself boastfully.

"I will inform her that this battle is over," the witch snarled, picking herself off the ground. "But the war has only just begun!" she warned before disappearing in a vortex.

"We sure kicked their asses!" Neptune shouted joyfully, flicking off a piece of link on her blazer.

"That's the best they could do?" Ethan panted, clearly enjoying the adrenaline rush before noticing a certain ravenette soaked in blood. "Whoa, what happened to you?"

"...Don't... ask..." Noire replied, still shaking with a traumatized look on her face.

"Let's get out of here," Uzume said, turning to the seven teenagers. "It's getting late, and I don't want your parent's to worry," she told them.

"I bet you don't," Conner frowned. "Then you might have something to explain," he challenged, causing the science teacher to sigh as she shook her head.

"Look," she told them. "I'll fill you in on everything tomorrow, after school. I promise," she told them before turning to Noire. "Yeah, and lemme' get you a towel real quickly."

The seven students glanced at each other before sighing and getting back into the truck and headed for home.

* * *

"Hmm... so my _other half_ is on this dimension as well..." the unknown ghostly figure telepathically said to Arfoire and Mesogog through a mysterious hologram. "Quite convenient, indeed. It was only a matter of time until I would discover her presence again. Once I eliminate her and retrieve the shares crystals, I shall use this wretched world as a catalyst for my return and vengeance."

Meditating in what appeared to be a void of some sort of negative energy, the ghostly figure then turned to face the hologram directly in front of her.

"Mesogog, inform Zeltrax to prepare the galleon warship immediately," she commanded the lizardly-humanoid. "With my powers nearly restored, I shall infuse these so-called 'Zords' with negative energy and unleash their dark powers on this world."

'Very well, master Kurome.'

"Good. Once they have finished their first strike, Zeltrax shall lead an aerial assault to destroy any remains and capture the Sharicites. The inhabitants of this dimension will think that idiot HachimaJin has returned. They won't know what's hit them until it's too late," the ghostly figure replied eerily.

"What about _that_ girl?" Arfoire nervously approached and asked the apparition.

"With her powers as a Goddess lost, that coward and her companion will be powerless to stop anything," Kurome noted with a cold glare, beginning to slightly lose her composure. "But, I _will_ kill her myself if I have to! She... she will suffer... slowly, and painfully... her and her allies, for trying to eliminate me back in the Heart Dimension..."

* * *

The next day came by fast as Noire walked up to the school's entrance while dragging Neptune by the hair, who simply wanted to sleep in that day, after all that's happened.

"Ugh!" Noire complained in disgust, tugging the stubborn lilac-haired girl. "I can't believe I also had to drag you out of bed today!"

"Face it, Noire," Neptune giggled, now being slowly dragged off the pavement. "You care about me, don't you?"

"N-N-No I don't," Noire spat out in defiance, expressing her typical tsundere attitude towards Neptune. "S-Shut up! We still need an explanation from Dr. Tennouboshi today, t-that's all!"

"Well, you two seem to be energetic as ever..."

They quickly turned to the side as the two spotted Kira walking by, approaching them.

"Top of the mornin' to ya' Kira!" Neptune joyfully shouted to the dirty-blonde musician as she tried to reach the arm grabbing behind her head. "I was going to give myself a day off after all that excitement unti— OWW!"

"A-Anyways," Noire interrupted as she tugged on Neptune harder. "You happened to get any sleep last night either?" she asked Kira.

"Oh, I slept like a baby— OUCH!" Neptune sneered before getting tugged harder by Noire. "Take it easy, lady! I bruise like a peach!"

"Not much," Kira admitted sheepishly, rubbing her eyes in exhaustion. "I kept dreaming about those freaky lizard-things and the other monsters that attacked us yesterday."

"Same," Noire exasperated. "At least you weren't the one covered all over in blood. It took me hours to clean all that off!" she cried out.

"So, you think we're gonna get an explanation today or what?" Neptune asked out of the blue as she pulled herself off Noire's hand.

"Who knows," Kira just shrugged. "I'm just hoping that it was all just a hallucination, sort've like how my instrument still needs to be repaired" she muttered, clearly still troubled by what she, Noire, and Blanc had came across while captured.

"I just wish we never touched those rocks or crystals in the first place," a worried Noire sighed as the three walked to their first-period biology.

"Noire, Kira, Neptune..."

The three girls were blocked by the certain overly-perky wannabe reporter as they entered the classroom.

"Cassidy, I know who you are," Noire rolled her eyes. "We're in homeroom together, remember?" she reminded.

"Yeah anyway," Cassidy simply waved off. "What can you tell me about the mysterious goings-on at Gamicademi? For example, the sudden friendship between you three, the king-of-all-jocks Conner, king-of-all-geeks Ethan, student class president Vert, and the loner valedictorian Blanc?" she questioned and Noire rolled her eyes again. "Or better yet, the strange creatures that came out of nowhere and just attacked you along with Blanc and Kira in broad daylight. What about that, huh?" she demanded.

Just as Noire was about to answer, Kira held a hand in front of her as she stood in-between the two girls.

"I've got this," the young musician nodded to the ravenette before turning towards Cassidy. "Look, we have no idea what you're talking about. But as you can see, we're just fine," Kira told her firmly. "But you, you look kind of... uh well, pasty," she said, pointing her finger towards her upper cheek.

"Pasty?! Are you serious?" the blonde squeaked with eyes widened in horror, quickly pulling her phone's mirror out of her bag. "I hate florescent lighting!" she stated with a whine, and the three quickly grabbed their chance and took a seat next to Ethan and Conner right as Dr. Tennouboshi entered the classroom.

"...Unless you're looking to have that phone taken up, I suggest that you put it away Cassidy," she told her, the whole class giggling as they watched Cassidy blush deeply and take her seat.

"Now," Dr. Tennouboshi said as she pulled up an image of a blue dog slime-like creature's anatomy and pointing towards it. "Who can tell me the basic structure of this dogoo right here?—"

But before anyone could even raise their hand to answer it, the ground began to shake violently and the lights flickered off as dark clouds blanked it the clear sunny sky, turning it dark as the night itself. The backup generator instantly kicked in and lite the room in low yellow/orange-ish glow, half of the class rushed over to the windows to see what was going on.

"Cass', you're not going to believe this!" Devin exclaimed, bursting into the classroom before tripping.

"Lemme guess, the sky just went black in the middle of the day," Cassidy rolled her eyes.

"It did?" he looked outside and his eyes lit up. "Woah, look at that!" he stared outside, dumbfounded.

"Devin, hello! What?!" Cassidy demanded, waving a hand in front of her 'assistant's' face.

"I just heard this crazy report about giant-ass robots attacking downtown, it's wicked!"

Uzume whirled her head in shock at the boy's words.

"C'mon! grab your camera!" Cassidy shouted excitedly as the two got up to leave. "We need to get the footage before Dengekiko of Famitsu do! Let's hope it's not on WorldStar or LeakLive or TubeYou first!"

"Hey, wait a minute you two!" the sanguine-haired teacher called out, attempting to stop the pair from leaving the classroom right before the intercom turned on.

"Student's remain calm. The city has declared a state of emergency," it spoke through the blaring alarm. "Please report to the front of the school for immediate dismissal. Again, please remain calm."

'Dammit, Kurome must be desperate to pull out all the stops if she's unleashing the Zords...' Uzume thought to herself in frustration.

The five quickly walked over to Dr. Tennouboshi as the rest of the class began to run out of the classroom.

"Dr. T, now might be a good time for that little chat," Kira said as Blanc and Vert soon walked into the room.

"Yeah, what the hell is going on?" the petite, short, brown-haired girl said in a slightly irritated voice as Vert pulled her back. "One minute our teacher is trying to give a lecture and the next minute, she's lying on the floor in the middle of a panic attack. You better start explaining."

"There's no time. If Kurome's already unleashing the Zords, then we need to act fast," Uzume told them before rushing out the classroom. "Come on!"

"Wait, what do you mean there's no time!" Noire protested. "I demand an explanation right no— UWAAAAH!"

"C'mon, little-miss-loner!" Neptune shouted as she pulled on the girls hand and ran out of the classroom. "Time to follow our crazy teacher!"

"Oh sure, what's the worst that can happen?" Ethan shrugged sarcastically, soon following the science teacher out along with the other six students.

* * *

"Lemme guess, you made these giant robot-Zord-thingys, didn't you?" Neptune asked as the eight walked down the Uzume and Umio's secret laboratory.

"Ancient mechanical creatures constructed from dreams-turned-reality," explained the sanguine-haired teacher. "Energized by the same source once used by the goddesses of this dimen— world; the power of shares," she told them before sighing and continuing. "My best guess, she intends to also use the ancient goddesses of this world as a means to her revenge."

"Hold up," Ethan stated. "Assuming all this crazy religious stuff about goddesses and shares are true, you're seriously expecting us to _stop_ them?"

"Yeah, talk about overpowered!" Neptune complained. "You can't expect us to just destroy them easily, that's suicide!"

"Not destroy them," she corrected the teenagers. " _Tame_ them."

"Either you're out've your mind, or this is some messed-up joke you got here, Dr. T," Ethan shook his head and started walking off.

"Later, noobs. If anyone needs me, I'll be back at my place stashing as much pudding and videogames as possible for the apocalypse," Neptune added as she skipped away. "Doomsday-shelter Hype!"

"I think the new biology teacher has officially lost her goddamn mind," Blanc commented to the group before storming off as well. "Wake me up when we our she ends up on next week's newpaper getting sent to a mental-hospital."

"Ethan, Blanc, Nepsy—... Neptune, wait!" Uzume called, which made three young teenagers stop and turn at her. "I know all of you can do this, but you don't have to do it alone," she tried to assure the group who simply frowned back at her as she lead them to a small vault nearby. "Ever since I found the Sharicites scatted throughout this world, I had these built, in-case of an emergency."

"Define Emergency..." Kira asked with a raised eyebrow as Uzume began to open up the small vault container.

"In their inert state, the crystals are volatile, unrefined; they can't be used to their fullest ability by human strength alone," she told them, leading the seven down a small saferoom. "So, Umio and I discovered a way to enhance them."

"Ohh, like some kind of soul gem or key-crest!?" Neptune asked curiously.

"Into what, exactly?" Vert asked in puzzled expression, ignoring the lilac-haired girl's previous comment.

"CPU Morphers." As if to simply answer everyone's question, Dr. Tennouboshi opened up the case, revealing seven strange devices with the colors of Red, Yellow, Blue, Purple, Black, Green and White; each one corresponding to the gems in the teenagers' hands just yesterday. The devices themselves appeared to be some sort of metallic or alien-like pocket-sized disc drives, as well as having an engraved design matching the creatures each of the teens had envisioned upon touching the gems.

"Use these to harness the power of shares, access the morphing grid, and to become Power Rangers," she told the seven, who stared at her with their mouths opened and eyes wide with shock.

"You mean like the superheroes on those Saturday morning cartoons and stuff?" Neptune asked as the biology teacher nodded. "You've got to be pullin' our legs here, buster brown!"

"I gotta sit down," Ethan stated shakily, ready to faint, but luckily Conner caught him before he could hit the ground.

"Dude, breath," Conner assured the computer geek.

"We can't be Power Rangers," Kira stated, shaking her head. "Aren't you supposed to be able to fly, or have super strength, or other stuff like that?" she asked, her light brown eyes filled with fear along with Noire nodding as well.

"You already do," Uzume reminded the musician and vice-president. The science teacher couldn't stop the slightly amused grin that appeared on their own faces.

"Oh yeah... I forgot," Kira smiled nervously as well as Noire.

"Your gems are actually the remains of the four goddesses that sacrificed their lives thousands of years ago," Umio suddenly said on the other side of the room.

"He's right," Uzume assured the seven as they turned back around. "Their combined residual energy and essence became embedded into various fragments scattered throughout the furthest reaches of this world," she told them. "When I found them, I recognized their power and hid them, so I could retu—... so they wouldn't fall into the wrong hands."

"How do you know _these_ are even in the right hands?" Conner asked the teacher, gesturing himself and the other six teens.

"As much as I hate to say it, the gems are all yours now," Uzume sighed with a slightly amused smile. "You didn't choose them... they chose you, actually."

"Can't they un-choose us?" Kira complained.

"Yeah," Neptune added. "Like some kind of 'you're not worthy' shindig on a Thor's hammer or whatever?"

"You mean Mjölnir?" Blanc asked with an annoyed tone.

"They've already bonded with your DNA," Umio explained to them as he approached Uzume. "In fact, that's what's given you your powers the entire time."

"Figures," Noire huffed.

"So if they already bonded with us, how come Kurome and that crazy witch still after them?" Ethan frowned.

Uzume and Umio's smiles were immediately replaced with a slightly haunted look on their faces, as they turned to each other before continuing.

"The crystals grant you powers nearly to that of a goddess," she said gravely. "But... they don't make you immortal."

"Only way these powers can be taken away," Umio added. "...Is if you're killed."

"Talk about some kind of crazy blood-contract," Blanc mumbled to herself.

"Okay, for future reference, that's not a great selling point," Ethan grumbled.

What a terrible bargain pitch," Neptune joked. "Sounds like a rip-off if you ask me."

"Alright," Noire interrupted. "Let's say everything about this 'Kurome' person and her plan for revenge is true; including these... _things_ , you just showed us," she said, pointing at the morphers in front of Uzume." Of all the places to attack, why _here_?" Noire asked everyone. "I mean, like aren't all the goddesses all dead or something, like you said? Couldn't she just attack some other world without any people, or with more of this crazy stuff?"

"You just answered your own question," Uzume solemnly said with a disappointed sigh. "With the age of the goddesses long past, there's nothing stopping Kurome from corrupting whatever remains left here as a starting point for her goal," she told the ravenette, then slightly grinned in reassurance to herself. "At least, nothing besides _you_ seven."

"Look," Conner shook his head. "All I know is, I don't remember asking to be a superhero..."

"These Sharicites wouldn't have bonded with you if it didn't think you had anything to offer in the first place," Dr. Tennouboshi and Umio told them. "Please. There's a reason the crystals chose you seven," she and her companion pleaded to the teenagers, whom glanced at each other with eyes clearly filled with worry as they each reached out and took the morpher's.

"Cool..." Neptune said with sparkly eyes as she darted towards the purple-colored morpher. "I call dibs!"

"Well... I always _did_ want to be the heroine of my own story," Blanc quietly said to herself, taking a white-colored morpher before noticing Vert starring at her smugly. "After all, this could make some amazing material for my sto—"

"My, my, Blanc..." Vert giggled lightheartedly, picking up the green morpher as she overhead Blanc's mumbling, much to the petite highschooler's annoyance.

"F-Fine!" the ravenette schoolgirl huffed reluctantly. "I-Its not like I want one of these, e-especially not the black one," Noire told the group as she nervously as she picked up her morpher. "I'm only doing this because you need us to," she said to the teacher.

"So, now what?" Ethan asked, examining the blue morpher in his hand. "Do we need some kind of secret password, or command?"

"Yeah, like some kind of mumbo-jumbo magic words or code?" Neptune added.

"All you have to do is say 'Hyper Thunder, Power Up,' and you'll be transformed," Uzume and Umio explained to them with a smile. "Trust us, you'll know what to do."

"Hyper Thunder?" Blanc said in a slightly unamused voice. "Sounds kinda corny."

"Did you come up with that?" Conner raised an eyebrow, then looked at Ethan with a slight smirk.

"I dunno man, I kinda like it," Ethan admitted with a small nod to himself. "Has a nice ring to it."

"You would," the soccer player's smirk grew even more as Ethan rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"Look, I know you seven are from different worlds, I get it," Uzume said to the seven teens, knowing fully-well her and her companion's experience with at least four of them in another realm. "But you're gonna need to work together, or this will never happen. It won't be easy, nobody knows that better than I do, trust me."

'You can say that again,' Umio thought to himself quietly.

"...But, you're gonna have to believe in yourselves as well," Uzume continued, looking at each of the seven with inspiration in her eyes. "Why? Because Umio and I believe in you. And I'm certain the goddesses would too."

"Really?" Conner asked, seeming taken back by the teacher's words.

"Really," Uzume nodded, giving the young soccer player an assuring thumbs up.

* * *

"We're here" Dr. Tennouboshi shouted to the teens as her truck came to a slamming halt in the center of downtown city. The seven quickly got out of the car and found themselves staring up at several massive robotic figures, colored in a sickly-pale lavender and orange-black, wreaking havoc in the district. Among these roaming mechanoids were a massive Griffin, a triceratops-like Behemoth, a ghostly Banshee, a lengthy Dragon soaring in the skies, a blazing Phoenix, a large Unicorn, and a colossal Frost-Giant terrorizing the city.

"Whoa! That must be them," Conner and Neptune said, gesturing toward the rowdy Zords.

"Wow, good call you two," Kira sarcastically remarked to the jock and NEET, though it was clear that all seven of the teens were in terror at what they saw.

Suddenly, the group watched as a large black-armored robot equipped with an intimidating sword and shield appear several feet in front of them.

"So, who's the discount LARP-er with the tacky sword and shield?" Blanc bluntly asked the group.

"I don't know," Vert answered as she carefully examined the hostile figure in their way. "But he doesn't appear to be friendly either..."

"Silence you insolent fools!" the robotic knight shouted at them. "You'll have to get past me, Zeltrax, before you get to those Zords!" he snarled.

"That's a part I'm looking forward to," Conner smirked.

"You guys ready?" Ethan asked, glancing at his fellow partners.

"Ahem..." Noire interrupted him with irritation in her eyes; everyone else not really noticing what might have annoyed the twintail-ravenette.

"Oh, right... fine," the computer nerd shook his head before correcting himself. "You _all_ ready?" he asked, turning to the six besides him again.

"Oh yeah," Kira smirked with a nod, clearly eager for fighting.

"You got that right!" Neptune jumped. "We're gonna' beat you up, tin-can!"

"Hmph," Noire scoffed at Ethan's correction. "That's more like it," she nodded, facing the robotic knight in front of them.

"Time to show this scrap of metal who's he's dealing with!" Blanc shouted with a grin, personally expecting to deliver another personal beatdown. "It's clobbering time!"

"Ready, everyone?" Vert asked as she raised her morpher.

"Ready!" the others nodded, preparing themselves.

 **"HYPER THUNDER! POWER UP! HA!"**

A bright, floating disk surrounded in 1's and 0's suddenly appeared in each of the teenager's hands as they grabbed and inserted the glowing discs into their morphers before jumping into the air and transforming. As they transformed, their regular school uniforms were replaced with armor-like pieces forming on them along with a full-body Power Ranger suit covering them from neck to toe before gracefully landing on the ground with a slam, in which a helmet digitized in front of them.

Once their transformation was complete, the seven teens marveled and cheered as they examined and felt their new amazing powers that were surging the through their bodies as well as their change of wardrobe.

"Whoa-a!" Ethan exclaimed, examining his blue ranger outfit.

"This totally rocks!" Kira said ecstatically!

"Anyone else also feeling like a badass?" Blanc rhetorically asked as she wondered on awe and excitement at his white CPU ranger suit.

"Awh yeah!" Conner said with a victorious fist pump.

"So friggin' cool," Neptune added as she looked at her outfit. "I mean, even if they are spandex and al—"

"Are you kidding me?!" Noire retorted to the transformed Purple CPU Ranger. "This is amazing!"

"Quite impressive indeed," Vert nodded.

Each of their new outfits had a bright, glowing, power-button emblem centered on their chest along with neon-like circuit contours and diamond-shaped patterning on their suits as well. Where the similarities ended were where the differences began to strikingly take place, with each of their colors corresponding to their Sharicite crystals along with unique helmets and visors designed to match and compliment their Zords; or in some cases, possibly their character-personality as well.

"So, you're Power Rangers!" Zeltrax hissed, clenching his fist tightly. "No matter, you all shall perish!"

"Everyone, call on your weapons!" Uzume called out to the seven rangers. "They're in your belt!"

"You got it Dr. T!" Conner nodded, and their belts began to glow and seven weapons appeared from them. "Alright, check it out! I got a Griffin staff!" Conner cheered, grabbing a red tri-staff.

"Nice! A Phoenix rapier!" Noire joyfully shouted, flicking a black, one-handed, ornate blade as she got into a fighting stance.

"I can come to grips with this, Banshee grips!" Kira grinned, clenching two yellow daggers-teeth blades.

"Shall we even up the score with this Unicorn spear?" Vert grinned, twirling around a green lance in her hands.

"Sweet! A Behemoth shield!" Ethan cheered, grabbing a blue, plated, buckler shield.

"Time to smash the competition with this Frost-giant hammer!" Blanc smiled, wielding a large white mallet.

"...Hey, why're we all talking so funny?" Neptune asked, as she picked up a purple, two-handed Dragon katana in her hand.

"Enough games!" Zeltrax snarled before summoning a large group of Tyrannodrones charging at the Rangers, who met with them and found them much easier to fight with their new powers and weapons.

Noire parried several strikes targeted towards her before unleashing a flurry of ripostes and counterattacks that disarmed and knocked-out several footsoldiers with swift thrusts and jabs from her elegant-looking saber. The Black CPU Ranger easily weaved and evaded several other attacks as if they were nothing to her.

"Hmmph, too easy," the Black Ranger smirked confidently to herself as she cleared out all her nearby foes.

Nearby, Kira used her twin daggers to grab two incoming scythe swings before tossing the two zombie-like henchmen toward opposite ends.

"Is that all you got?" the Yellow Ranger taunted, cutting away at a Tyrannodrone's armor with her dual weapons and bicycle-kicking it to the floor followed by a backflip.

"Cya!" the Blue Ranger shouted at the monster he sent flying just moments ago. Using his new weapon as a sort of riot-shield, Ethan easily blocked each and every single strike, delivering a blunt, powerful, bash attack that forced back his opponents trying to dogpile him. Meanwhile, the Green Ranger used her long, bladed lance to easily pick off any footsoldiers trying to flank the spear and shield duo.

"Outta' my way!" the White Ranger boasted as she swung her hammer at an incoming monster, sending it crashing into the size of a wall. Blanc then delivered a just as powerful and heavy back-swing towards a trio of scythe-wielding footsoldiers attempting to attack from behind, only to be sent skyrocketing in the air before falling with a loud thud. Noticing another approaching group, the White CPU Ranger then slammed her hammer at the ground, creating a small, earth-shattering fissure blocking their way.

Using his three-section-staff as leverage, the Red Ranger swung himself over a Tyrannodreon charging at him. Conner then swooped an end of the staff underneath the creature's feet and delivered a forceful kick on the knocked-down Tyrannodrone.

"Have a nice trip!" he joked at the obviously defeated creature and knocked another monster off its feet. "...See you next fall!" he continued, breaking off the ends of the staff into two extra flail-like extensions, swinging it around the creatures surrounding him.

"Ryujin-no-ken-wo— ...something or whatever!" Neptune shouted as she swung around her two-handed sword maniacally, akin to that of a cybernetic ninja hero in a certain video game (or tried to, at least). The Purple Ranger then quickly spun around before unleashing a wide swing, easily taking out all the enemies surrounding her followed by a series of jump-kicks and more slashes.

"So, you've defeated my troops," all seven whirled their heads to see the robot leader standing just a few feet from them as they finished off the remaining enemies. "But let's see how you fair against me."

"I call dibs on the big ugly robot!" Neptune spat out as she eagerly dived towards Zeltrax with a overhead slash from her katana.

"Neptune, wait!"

"We shall see about that, weakling!" Zeltrax growled, catching the Purple Ranger off-guard with a shot out beam of energy wrapping itself around her.

"Hey... what the—!" the suspended Neptune helplessly screamed in surprise before getting slammed into a small flagpole.

"Neptune!" Noire screamed in horror beofre turning towards Zeltrax. "Why you! Nobody hurts my friends!" the Black Ranger said angrily as she and the others stood protectively between Zeltrax and the Purple Ranger slowly getting back up, only for herself and the others to be tossed onto the ground as the robotic monster fired lasers at them.

"Everyone! Combine your Ranger weapons!" Uzume called out to them.

"You got it!" Conner nodded as he and the others carefully got back up again. The seven quickly brought their primary weapons together, which formed an energized buster-rifle.

"Zeta-Blaster! Ready. Set. Fire!" the seven Rangers yelled as a powerful beam of colored light shot out of the cannon and Zeltrax was blasted to the ground by the powerful explosion.

"Woohoo!" Neptune jumped in joy as the others cheered. "We showed that bucket of scrap who's boss!" she added, before noticing the large explosion they caused behind them. "Hey, why are we all posing like this—?"

"You have shown me your weapon. Now you shall meet mine!" Zeltrax growled in pain as he stood up from the blast. "This is the end, Rangers!" he shouted triumphantly, disappearing into a flash before a large airship appeared in the sky along with the rampaging Zords.

"Whoa, not fair," Neptune complained as the flying battleship fired a barrage of lasers sending them knocked off their feet. "Crazy guy in black armor gets to pilot a mini star-destroyer, so unfair!"

"Okay, how the in the world are we supposed to fight THAT?" Conner frantically asked, looking at the sanguine-haired professor as they all took cover.

"You've got to tame the Zords," Uzume explained, knowing full well that the robotic creature just needed to be free of Kurome's curse. "Concentrate. Those crystals in your Morphers will allow you to communicate your thoughts."

"Right!" the seven nodded, except for Neptune, before rushing over to confront their Zords.

"And sigh my death-wish?" Neptune nervously joked. "I think I wanna pass on that, thank you."

"Neptune!" Noire shouted angrily at the Purple Ranger, obviously annoyed by her lax behavior.

"Oh, fine... fine..." Neptune shrugged before catching up with the others. "...but if I get killed, I'm blaming all of you."

"Look at them," Ethan exclaimed, pointing at both the large Behemoth and Frost-giant Zord as they looked down at the seven and roared angrily.

"They're huge, whoa!" Conner stated, marveling at the sight of the large mechanical creatures.

"That's what she said," Neptune snickered before getting elbowed by Noire.

"Look what you did!" Blanc screamed at the Purple Ranger as the Behemoth Zord began to approach them. "You made them even more mad!"

"Calm down boy," Ethan soothed, holding up his hands a little and carefully stepping closer toward the colossal land creature. "It's all good."

"Ethan, be careful," Kira warned, fearing for the Blue Ranger's safety.

"That's right, I'm your friend," Ethan ignored the Yellow Ranger's warning, sensing that he had the large bovine-like animal's attention. "Behemoth-Zord!" he called, lifting up his arm right as his morpher glowed and the seven ranger watched the Behemoth roar loudly and change to blue.

"It worked!" Ethan cheered, along with the others.

"Uhh... fellas," Neptune poked Ethan's shoulder nervously.

Their smiles soon turned to worry as they glanced at the large Frost-Giant Zord charging towards them, only for Blanc to stand right in front of the other six.

"Hey you sorry excuse for a piece of junk robot! Down here!" the White Ranger screamed angrily, stomping her foot on the ground and grabbing its attention. "Yeah, I'm talking to you, you overgrown yeti! Jotunn-Zord!" she yelled, lifting her glowing morpher as the frost-giant changed to a snow-white color and become docile.

"Well, that's _one_ way to tame a monster," Kira chuckled nervously, as the seven teens then noticed a large horned stallion along with a flaming bird and levitating banshee on the other side.

"Alright, it looks like I'm up next," Vert smiled determinedly, turning her attention and whistling to the robotic-looking equine, who was staring down at the Green Ranger intensely. But like the other two, she didn't turn away as she lifted the morpher in front of her. "Don't worry, we're not here to hurt you," she calmly said to the horned-stallion in a caressing voice before raising her glowing morpher. "Unicorn-Zord!" Vert then cheered as the galloping creature buckled and neighed before turning bright green.

"Ok, my turn," Kira said, lifting her morpher up and looking up at the ghostly fairy as it flew overhead. "Banshee-Zord! We can be friends, right?" Landing on top of a skyscraper, the mechanical winged-fae screeched loudly with a blood-curdling scream at the sky as it turned to yellow.

"Uh, o-over here!" Noire shouted nervously as she suddenly noticed the flying bird staring at her with a deathly glare. "I... I'm ordering you to stop attacking everything, THIS INSTANT!" she stammered, proceeding to raise her morpher in front of the mechanical avian. "Phoenix-Zord!" she flinched, as the large bird flew past her before landing on a skyscrapper and transformed to a solid black color with dark flames.

"Awesome!" the five of them said in joy. But as the Ranger's began to cheer, they heard a furious roar and watched in horror as the still untamed Griffon on the ground and Dragon flying in the sky began to clash against each other, causing much collateral destruction among their duel.

"Conner! Neptune! The Griffon-Zord and Skydragon-Zord are outta control!" Ethan yelled at the two.

"Aww, couldn't we just let them tire each other out first?," Neptune complained, not really feeling like taming a raging creature.

"Just control your damn lizard already, you lazy a—" Blanc hissed angrily at Neptune before suddenly getting cut-off by the Black Ranger.

"Don't just stand there!" Noire pleaded to the Red and Purple Rangers. "Do something, you two!"

"Come on, I need you to work with me here!" Conner stated, waving his arms in desperation at the Zord that didn't appear to respond to him. The Red Ranger then shook his head and clenched his fists tightly for a moment, before realizing what he needed to do. "Griffon-Zord!" he yelled, lifting his arm up and watched as the mechanical Griffon let out a loud cry, changing to red and its eyes changed to a bright green.

"Hey buddy, ole' friendo, pal—," Neptune tried pleading with the large dragon floating bellow the thundering clouds, clearly refusing to listen to her. "Can you, like, stop being all crazy and everything already? Seriously?" The Purple Ranger clenched her teeth in annoyance before jumping up close to the lightning dragon and showing it her morpher. "Skydragon-Zord!" she shouted as the dragon Zord let out a cackling roar and changed to purple color with bright blue eyes.

"You did it!" Kira grinned, she and the other five rushed over to the Red Ranger and Purple Ranger.

"See, a piece of cake I tell you!" Neptune smirked over-confidently.

"There's only one thing left to do," Uzume called, running over towards them. "Bring 'em together and form the CPU-Megazord. You can do it," she assured them.

"See, I was going to try and solo this myself, but if you all insist— Ouch!" Neptune joked before getting bopped in the head by Noire. "Cut it out, will ya'?" she said to the Black Ranger as everyone ignored Neptune's complaint.

"Okay let's do it!" Conner and the others nodded with Dr. Tennouboshi's advice, and the seven jumped into their Zords one by one. As they entered their Zords, each of the rangers were presented with some kind of glowing orb that appeared to be their control panel in front of them.

"Logging in," all seven of them said as they placed their hands on top of the device as a display in the middle began spinning brightly with a loud hum.

"I got it!" Kira told them, noticing the activated control unit.

"Me too!" Conner nodded.

"Time to finish this!" Blanc said with confidence.

 **"Combine Powers!"** All seven of the new rangers shouted as the Zords began to transform and combine into a single, powerful Megazord:

* * *

 **"Initiating: Hard Drive Divinity!"** (*Insert Dino-Thunder instrumental theme BGM here*)

The Red Ranger's Griffon-Zord transformed into a bipedal mech standing on its hind legs, becoming the base core unit and torso of the entire mecha.

Attaching onto the griffon's lower-body, the White Ranger's frost giant Jotunn-Zord split into two and formed the feet and leg armored components of the Megazord.

Charging into the combining zords, the Blue Ranger's Behemoth-Zord folded together and formed a shield-like right arm. Similarly, the Green-Ranger's Unicorn-Zord became the left arm and wielded a drill-like weapon that came from the zord's horn.

The Yellow Ranger's Banshee-Zord as well as the Black Ranger's Phoenix-Zord folded-up and became the left and right wings/shoulder armor pieces.

Lastly, the nearly complete robot leaped into the air just as the Purple Ranger's Skydragon-Zord dived down from above, breaking apart into various segments that attached to and formed the head/helmet, chest-plate, and belt wrap areas, soon completing the CPU Megazord's transformation.

Inside the Megazord, all seven Rangers were now standing together in a single control room containing all of their orb-like devices joined to each other. The entire area surrounded in bright light and streams of binary 1's and 0's flying around them.

* * *

"It worked!" they all cheered and turned the Megazord to the flying battleship.

"Your power is no match for me, weaklings!" Zeltrax yelled. "Fire!"

Large red laser beams shot out of the ship, making the Ranger's cry out as the Megazord shook and was pushed back.

"Now I'm mad!" Conner growled angrily.

"Bring it on, you dumb ship!" Neptune taunted at the floating dreadnought as cables quickly shot out and constricted the Megazord before bolts of electricity shot through the cables and shocked the Megazord, making the Ranger's cry out even more.

"Time to head for the back of the net!" Conner shouted and clasped his hand with a clenched fist, rallying the others.

Using the cabled tethers as a rope, the Megazord swung and quickly flew high into the air just above Zeltrax's ship, breaking free of the attached wires.

"!?" Zeltrax's eyes widened in surprise as he noticed the large Megazord now right behind him.

"Look! There's the heart of the ship!" Kira yelled, noticing the small exposed area in the center.

"Time to attack its weak spot for MAXIMUM critical damage!" Neptune shouted as she pointed towards the ship's glowing section. "Cue super finishing move in three... two...—"

"Giga Drill! Engage!" They called on their powerful attack and pierced right through the ship, forcing Zeltrax to retreat as the ship exploded with a loud boom.

"Wait, what's going on!?" Zeltrax asked himself, noticing the ship beginning to malfunction and blow apart. "This isn't the end, Rangers!" he shouted at the approaching Megazord before suddenly teleporting away, escaping from the battlecruiser's destruction.

"Woohoo!" Neptune cheered in joy along with the others. "We did it!"

* * *

"Our deepest apologies, sir" the pale-skinned witch pleaded, wincing in pain while lying on the floor along with the others

"So, _her_ other half has taught them to become... Rangers, is that so?" Mesogog hissed as he sent Zeltrax, Elsa, and Arfoire to the ground with a mind-numbingly painful telepathic push.

"We should've foreseen this development," Zeltrax replied, grunting his head in pain.

"Yes, you should have," Mesogag replied in a haunting voice. "And perhaps I should foresee your destruction, as well..." he threatened at the trio's incompetence.

"...There is no need to," a ghostly figure suddenly began to partially emerge from a dark mist and approach the four. "The warrior, assassin, and mage have all served their job well: gauging the strength of our adversaries. The destruction of the warship was only a minute setback of the ultimate plan."

While somewhat hidden in a dark fog, the figure appeared to closely resemble Dr. Tennouboshi's height and figure, but with empty, dark blue eyes void of any humanity and long, dark blue hair matching a similar hairstyle to the sanguine-haired teacher. Although hard to depict due to the surrounding mist, her attire could slightly be compared to Uzume's previous clothes long in the past, but with inverted colors along with accents of pale grey and indigo.

"Very well," Mesogog slowly nodded to Kurome, releasing the three from his grasp before slowly turning to them. "Let this be a lesson to the three of you... defeat will not be taken lightly."

"What about those humans and that ex-Goddess capturing the creatures?" Elsa turned to ask the nearby figure, gasping heavily upon being freed from the mental attack along with Zeltrax and Arfoire.

"I suspected the possibility of my other half happening to capture the _our_ creations for ourselves," the shrouded Dark-Goddess said coldly. "Let her and those wretched humans have their fun, for now. All the better to see their demise as they fall into despair and hopelessness..." she told them eerily. "With the gems no longer in her direct possession, their is no way for her to retreat back to that wretched world."

* * *

Dr. Tennouboshi and Umio each opened a small silver briefcase containing the morpher's and held it out in front of the seven teenagers back in their normal forms and clothes; Red, Blue, and Yellow in one case, and another holding Purple, Black, Green and White ones. This time, however, the morpher's changed into small bracelets that held their respective Sharicite crystals.

"Keep these bracelets with you, at all times," the human-faced fish instructed the seven.

"They'll access your morphers when you need them," Uzume explained as Neptune and Conner looked down at them. "And, you can use them to communicate with me, with Umio, and with each other." The science teacher finished as Noire and the others took theirs nervously.

"Cool beans!" Neptune cheered upon examining the bracelet. "Has this weird cult-like vibe to it."

"Has quite the fashion statement, I'd say," Vert added.

"At least its not stupidly tacky for a disguise, like a pair of sunglasses or flip-phone," Blanc jeered.

"Dr. T, I know you're real smart and a science teacher and everything," Kira spoke up, looking both curious and confused. "...and have some kind of talking fish or whatever... but this? I mean, how did you—?"

"We're fill you in," Uzume nodded as she and Umio smiled at her. "In time, just trust me," the sanguine-haired professor told them.

"Speaking of time, you think this Kurome lady and her creeps are gonna stick around for awhile?" Ethan asked nervously.

"Unfortunately, seems like they always do," Uzume and Umio sighed to each other. Everyone else glanced at the two with weird, if not confused, looks.

"They?" Conner asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Hold up a second?" Neptune pointed a finger at the biology teacher. "You're telling me there's MORE of them?" she cried out, somewhat distraught at the predicament. "And here I thought we would keep these powers for giggles and shi— Ouch!" the lilac-haired girl said before getting bonked in the head by Noire.

"Are you insane!?" Noire glared at Neptune in annoyance. "We can't just abuse our powers willy-nilly! We need to be responsible for our actio—"

"Sure thing, Uncle Ben! let's all become your friendly neighborhood Power-Rangers," Neptune sneered sarcastically as the ravenette rolled her eyes at the remark. "With great power comes great responsibility," she mocked at Noire.

"Look, I know this is a lot to take in," Dr. Tennouboshi warned them, changing the subject and breaking up their argument. "Your lives have just changed in ways you couldn't have possibly imagined. But, as long as you work together, and remember: you're a team, no one can ever defeat you," she told them, smiling confidently. "No one."

"Nobody?" Neptune asked, tilting her head.

"Nobody," Umio assured them.

"Really now?" Blanc raised an eyebrow curiously right as Uzume replied with a genuine nod.

The seven new Rangers nervously starred back and forth, looking a little worried towards each other of what was to come.

"So..." Neptune suddenly spoke up, breaking the awkward silence among the teens before raising the bracelet on her arm towards Dr. Tennouboshi. "...Does this come in pink?"


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I don't own the Hyperdimension Neptunia or Power Rangers franchises. Both belong to their respective owners (Idea Factory International and Saban Brands).

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Wave Goodbye**

"So… this the place?" Neptune asked as she and Noire stood in their casual clothing, outside of what looked to be a café; with the former wearing a white and purple hoodie and the latter wearing a frilly black skirt and sweater.

"Looks like it," Noire mumbled, looking back and forth between her phone's text message and sign in front of the building with a slight frown. "… _The Blue Hedgehog Lounge_ , hmm?" she read from the entrance.

"I take it you two also got the same text?" Vert called out as she walked towards them, yawning in the process. The class-president, surprisingly, was wearing a simple green T-shirt and pair of pants, as if she had put them on last minute before rushing out. Beside her was Blanc, who seemed to be wearing a small white sundress and held a parasol over her head from the bright midday sun.

"Yup'!" Neptune eagerly greeted the blonde Green Ranger and petite White Ranger. "Still wonder why he wanted to meet up so early in the morning," she joked. "Kinda' breaking into my beauty-sleep, if you catch my drift—"

"It's eleven in the daytime, you idiot," Blanc stated to the lilac-haired girl rather bluntly in her quiet voice, clearly unamused at her peppy attitude.

"Hey everyone!" The four turned to see Kira casually walking towards them with a smile. She appeared to be wearing her usual punk-rock attire including a pair of olive jeans and a yellow graffiti shirt.

"Hiya Kira," Neptune shouted to the dirty-blonde with a grin. "And here we thought you got yourself captured again or whatever."

"As if," Kira rolled her eyes at the lilac-haired ditz.

"So, the whole gang is here…" Conner smirked as he approached the group of ladies standing outside the café, wearing white and red shirt underneath his leather jacket. "Ethan texted ya'll too, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah," Neptune nodded. "Said' it was, like, super-dupery-important or something like that," she shrugged.

"Anyways," Vert tiredly yawned again, and then gave the sign outside the building a quick glance. "Do you all by chance know what this place, _The Blue Hedgehog Lounge_ , is?" she asked curiously.

"No clue," Conner sighed, unfamiliar with this part of town too well.

"Same here," Noire shook her head. "No idea either"

"Let's check it out then," Kira suggested as the others nodded before going inside.

* * *

"Woah," Conner said to himself as he glanced around the unusual café as well as its various decorations and patrons. "You ladies think he lives here?" he asked jokingly.

"I think he _wishes_ he lived here," Kira replied sarcastically as the others shared a chuckle.

"I know I'd want to live here myself," Neptune said with glimmering eyes at the café's space, imagining having it all to herself to sit back, eat pudding, and play videogames all day.

"To be fair, this place is quite nice indeed," Vert added, also appearing to be interested in the room's limitless possibilities for her own interests.

"A little bit too noisy for my tastes," Blanc muttered.

The group then turned and spotted Ethan on the other side of the café.

"There they are! My brother and sisters in crime," he grinned, walking over to them. "At least, in _crime-fighting_ ," he added in with a quiet whisper. "Welcome to my world. What do you think?" Ethan asked raised his arms up.

"It's kinda cool," Conner commented. "In a whole techno, retro, dorky sort of wa— ow!" he lightly groaned and shot a glare at Vert, who had lightly jabbed him in the side with her elbow.

"Kinda cool?" Neptune protested. "This is FRIGGIN' AWESOME!"

"You can do anything here," Ethan explained, clearly on the verge of bursting with excitement. "Play games, chat online, listen to music, eat, drink… you name it!"

"Books too?" Blanc asked with a blank expression.

"Don't see why not?" Ethan shrugged in reply. "Hey, they even have Slam poetry nights here too, if you're into that sort've stuff," he said to the petite bookworm.

"Books, shmooks…" Neptune brushed off the two's conversation. "Who's even got time for that kind of crap?"

"Not you, apparently…" Noire jokingly hissed at the purple teenager. "Judging by your last pop quiz…"

"See? And this is why you don't have any friends," Neptune smirked.

"Wh— Why y-you!?" Noire cried out in irritation, but was immediately cut off by Vert talking to Ethan before she could say anything more.

"So, who's the genius that came up with such a brilliant idea for this place?" the class-president eagerly asked with sparkling eyes full of fascination, attempting to break up the two's argument.

"That would be Hayley," Ethan told them, pointing at an older red-headed woman sitting over at the bar talking with IF. "Techno legend, graduate researcher, and programming genius," he added. "Got tired of working for some big technology company and decided to open up this place."

"Good thing for you, I guess," Kira teased at the computer nerd.

"No lie," he smiled brightly.

"…and for us too," Neptune and Vert nodded in excitement.

"Anyways," Conner said as he used Ethan's shoulder as an armrest. "What's so important that you brought us all here, especially on a weekend as well?"

"I just figured that…" Ethan shrugged. "Hey, if we're going to be saving the world together, I wanted to show you guys what I'm all about."

"True," Vert agreed with Ethan. "If we're going to be working together as a team, we should probably learn to get along together," she told them, smiling as she wrapped her arms around Neptune and Blanc

"Okay sure," Conner replied, patting Ethan on the back and brushing aside his comment as the Blue Ranger huffed in mild annoyance. "Whatever, dude."

The six then turned to Noire with a sly look on each of their faces, knowing full well about the ravenette's reputation of a 'no-fun-allowed' attitude at their school.

"F-fine!" Noire nervously barked at the others. "I-I'm only doing this because you all insist," she tried saying coolly, waving her hair off in a tsundere-like manner. "Hmmph,"

"Fair enough," Kira shrugged as the seven noticed IF walking over to them.

"Oh, hey Nep," IF said, waving to the lilac-haired classmate. "I didn't expect to see you and everyone else from our class here."

"Wazzup' Iffy!" Neptune cheered at the part-time waitress. "I didn't know you worked here either."

"Yeah," IF shrugged. "Place had its grand opening just a few days ago; didn't even post flyers about it in school ye— oh…" she added, before noticing Ethan standing among the seven.

"Wait," Conner interrupted. "You two know each other?" he asked curiously.

"Yup yep yep!" Neptune nodded. "Me, Iffy and Compa have been BFFs since middle-school!" she exclaimed joyfully.

"The bubbly nursing student?" Kira raised an eyebrow. "I would've not expected the three of you to be best buds."

"Ding ding ding!" Neptune sarcastically gave the musician a thumbs up. "We got a winner here! Somebody get this contestant a prize!"

"…Except for the fact that Compa and I tended to stay away from _her_ 'antics' most of the time," IF replied, pointing a finger at the lilac haired girl. "Don't even get me started on that sprinkler 'prank' earlier this week," she added as nobody noticed the subtle cough from Ethan.

"So, speaking of Compa," Neptune asked the part-time waitress. "Is she working here too?"

"No, not really," IF shrugged. "She works night shifts at the downtown clinic as a nurse's assistant. Pretty tiring stuff, if you ask me."

"You don't say," Blanc mumbled to herself as Hayley walked over towards them.

"Hey girls," the woman smiled. "What can IF and I get you all?"

"Oh, sweet!" Neptune cheered. "I'll have a Bepsi float!" she said, pointing at the front menu.

"One cherry sherbet snow-cone please," Blanc added.

"Got it. One Bepsi float and sherbet snow-cone coming right up!" IF smiled as she wrote down the two orders on a small notepad before walking off behind the kitchen counter.

"I'll just have an apple juice," Kira shrugged at Hayley.

"Oh that's easy," the woman smiled, gesturing the Rangers to follow her over to the counter. "Kira, right?" she asked as the Yellow Ranger nodded in surprise.

"Yeah, how'd you know?" Kira asked, and Hayley's smile grew wider.

"Oh, I'm all about information. It's kinda' my business, after all" she told them. "You sing and play, don't you?"

"Yeah, I do," Kira smiled.

"Great," Hayley smiled. "How about this Friday, you and the rest of the light music club play here? We'll call it an audition," the café owner suggested, and the yellow ranger's brown eyes widened in shock.

"I mean, yeah! That'd be gre—!" Kira nodded excitably, before remembering that she left behind her broken instrument behind. "Except… that I don't have my guitar with me anymore," she said solemnly.

"You mean _this_ one?" the redhead smiled as she handed a shocked Kira her guitar, fully repaired and cleaned as brand new. "IF found this tossed behind the school the other day; figured it just needed to be fixed up and brought back as new," she winked before going behind the bar.

"Okay, I _love_ her," Kira decided as she held her instrument in pristine condition, causing Ethan grin brightly at her.

"That's Hayley for you," he said, leaning up against the bar. "There's not one kid in here that she hasn't helped out somehow."

"She hasn't helped me," Conner mumbled, looking around with a rather bored expression.

"Or me for that matter!" Neptune complained.

"That's because you're beyond help," Blanc said rather bluntly at the lilac-haired teen.

"Conner, the soccer player, right?" Hayley appeared on the other side and handed Kira her drink before facing Conner. "I'm surprised you're not at the open tryouts for the Reefside Wave."

"Reefside Wave? Isn't that the world-famous pro soccer team that won the last three annual championships in first place?" IF asked as she came from the back and handed Neptune and Blanc their orders as well.

"Open tryouts?" he asked, ignoring IF's question.

"Yeah, down at the local park right now," Hayley told the Red Ranger.

"You're kidding, right?" Conner asked with a cocky grin.

"No," the café owner shook her head with a confident smile, with Conner's grin suddenly changing to a look of genuine surprise.

"You were saying?" Ethan smirked at Conner, as the soccer player looked at him and Hayley before eagerly racing out of the café in a sprint. "Good luck bro!" he called out to the running Red Ranger with a chuckle.

"Neptune, the gamer, is that correct?" Hayley asked, turning her attention to the Purple Ranger.

"The one and only!" Neptune joked, making a peace sign with her fingers. "You're looking at the one and only MLG Diamond II ranked champion!" she smirked.

"Then I guess you probably already knew about _Team DuoTop_ recruiting a new roster for this year's teams?" Hailey replied with a smile.

"Say wuuuuuut!?" Neptune's eyes widened in surprise. " _TDT_ is looking for new players!?"

"Yeah, trials start next month, right before the start of this season's championship series." Hayley told her. "Seems like they need people for AD-carry, Mid, and Jungler—"

"Sign me the hell up!" Neptune joyfully shouted, slamming her drink down on the counter in excitement. "You're looking at TheLegend27 of a Mid-Laner right here!" she boasted confidently as Hayley turned to Noire standing beside Neptune.

"Noire, the vice-president of the student council, right?" she asked the ravenette.

"Yeah, that's me," Noire brushed her hair confidently.

"Well this seems like something you might be interested in, seeing that you like to dress up nicely and all," she said, discretely handing Noire a small flyer about a small flyer about some kind of cosplay competition. "Looks like they're holding it at this year's expo convention next month, you interested?" she asked.

"Uhm… I-I suppose so," Noire nervously agreed to the Hayley, attempting to hide her contained excitement and paper flyer away from the others, especially Neptune's peering eyes.

"Then you must be Vert, the class-president," the redhead smiled as she turned her attention to the Green Ranger. "Wait, let me guess, you play a lot of VR-MMOs, don't you?"

"You could say that," Vert grinned. "Four Goddesses Online, to be exact."

"Wait, you play 4GO too?" Ethan asked, curious and somewhat surprised at the blonde's love for MMO role-playing-games. "Let me guess, you main with Green Kingdom as well, don't you?" he added.

"Well this must be great for both of you," Hayley chuckled lightly. "With the new expansion pack coming out this winter, I suppose you two might be interested in signing up for its closed beta," she suggested.

"Yes!" both Ethan and Vert squealed in joy.

"Great, just use these sign-up keys to gain early access," she said, handing each of them small voucher codes. "And be sure to give them feedback as well," Hayley nodded and moved towards the silent Blanc.

"I think I love this place even more," Vert said to herself as held onto the voucher card with eyes brimming in excitement.

"And you must be Blanc, the author?" Hayley asked, turning her attention towards the quiet White Ranger.

"Yeah, what about it?" Blanc answered in her usual neutral expression, clearly with a look for boredom.

"A little birdie told me how there's an open-writer's competition this month, and how they're already accepting submissions," Hayley suggested. "Heard that the grand-prize winner would also have their work published on the next Nitroplus magazine issue."

"Really?" Blanc asked with a look of excitement the sparked within her, surprisingly.

"Yeah," the redhead nodded. "Deadline's the end of this month, so now's the best time to start," the café owner told Blanc with a thumbs-up before walking off elsewhere along with IF.

"Alright, that woman is a godsend," Blanc decided, as she and the others looked at each other with a grin before continuing. "Looks like I've got a manuscript to write and two little sisters to deal with, I'll catch you all later," she said before walking off and handing Neptune her half-eaten snow cone.

"I've gotta go too; I need to put a set list together with the other members and restring this guitar," Kira said, getting up and handing Ethan her apple juice. "Here, bye!" she called, grabbing her guitar and rushing out of the café to prepare for her gig.

"And I've got some inventory space to organize for tonight's raid boss!" Vert cheered. "Plus, I probably need to make more room for the next expansion's loot!" she added, before getting up and leaving. "I guess we'll meet here another time?"

"Yeah, I better get going too," Noire shrugged before walking away. "I need to start sewing a new costu— err… I mean, I've got important stuff to do back at home!" she corrected herself before frantically running off. "B-Bye!"

"Ahh, nothing like spreading the love," Ethan smiled and shook his head, making Neptune laugh as the two got up.

"You've got that right, my brother from another motha'!" Neptune joked to Ethan, hanging an arm around his shoulder and offered Blanc's sherbet in front of the slightly-annoyed computer nerd. "So… half-eaten snow cone?"

Their conversation was cut abruptly right as the two began to hear their bracelets go off before walking to a secluded spot away from anyone else.

"Yeah Umio, you got Ethan and Neptune." The Blue Ranger responded to the device.

" _Can you two meet up with Uzume outside the waterfront in about an hour?_ "

"With Dr. T? Yeah sure, what's up?" Neptune asked.

" _Just be there, and Uzume and I will fill you in on the details later,_ " the fish answered cryptically before ending the communication.

"Sheesh, I wonder what that's all about," Neptune said to herself as she followed Ethan out the café.

* * *

"A few weeks before classes started, Umio and I explored the local wildlife and terrain around here," Uzume explained, walking through a small riverside forest with Ethan and Neptune following her from behind. They continued to walk and look around the forest until coming across a small divot in the terrain.

"You mean the weird looking fish with a human face," Neptune asked, as if it was the umpteenth time already.

"Yes, the _weird looking fish_ ," Dr. Tennouboshi rolled her eyes in annoyance before spotting something of interest to them, walking towards bone-like carcass that had several microchips embedded and sticking out of it. "There," she said, pointing at the remains and approaching it.

"Whoa," Ethan blinked as he and Neptune kneeled and leaned down beside their science teacher "What are they?" he asked, point at the small protrusions on the bony carcass.

"Chips," Uzume stated, smiling a bit amused at their discovery.

"Oh it's cool Dr. T, I just had nachos a couple of hours ago," Ethan spoke up.

"And I'm kinda like, on a bit of a low carb diet and all, so yeah," Neptune added.

"We're not going to eat them, silly," their science teacher laughed. "We're going to turn these into flight-packs for you seven to use" she explained as the two teens glanced at each other in mixed confusion.

"Uh, maybe it's all this quiet out here that's got me hearing thing's and stuff, but I thought you just said we're going to make these into jetpacks," Ethan frowned, hoping that the science teacher was joking.

"Wings? Yeah, did you hit your head or something?" Neptune added, also hoping this was some dumb joke she'd try herself. But judging by the look on the professor's face, it clearly wasn't.

"Trust me, you two," their teacher nodded. "When these things are ready they'll be a big help to us," Uzume stated, as she began to reach and carefully remove the embedded fragments inside the carcass and place the chips into a small bag.

"Cool beans!" Neptune grinned and pulled up the small purple microprocessor-like chip on the skeleton.

"Hold up." Ethan blinked, staring at the Purple ranger in disbelief. "Just how are you okay with this?"

"Oh so you're telling me you DON'T want to fly like superman and all?" the lilac-haired girl pointed out, nonchalantly tossing the chip in her hand into Uzume's bag.

"Whatever you say," Ethan shook his head, kneeling down to help. "I'm just saying, how are there even going to give us wings and al—?"

But before he could finish his sentence, the three suddenly heard a rustle in the trees.

"You girls saw that, right?" Ethan asked nervously as they all stood up.

"We have to keep these safe, no matter what," Dr. Tennouboshi stated, stuffing the small baggie in her pockets while cautiously scanning the trees for any activity.

"But who'd want to destroy them?" Neptune asked .

"I would," another voice said with a smirk.

The three spun around, noticing that Elsa appeared from her hiding place behind a tree, as Zeltrax and Arfoire emerged from another side of the tree and stood beside her.

"As would I," Arfoire told the trio coldly.

"Kurome is starting to have doubts about you and your allies' competence, Tennouboshi," Zeltrax added as a monster slowly crept up from behind and lunged at Uzume's pockets.

"H-Hey!" Dr. Tennouboshi shouted in defiance as she shoved the footsoldier away from her pockets and kicked it in the chest that sent it crashing to the ground with a growling cry.

"Attack!" Zeltrax ordered, as the small horde of Tyrannodrones and zombie-like monsters charged towards them.

Neptune grabbed and blocked each of the monsters' strikes at her, attempting to grab a hold of each of them as some kind of personal tazer and electrocute them. Another monster then lunged from the side with a kick that threw her right beside a tree.

"Ouch," Neptune said, covering the side of her torso as she got up, noticing Ethan and Uzume also struggling to fight off the monsters.

"Ethan! Neptune!" Dr. Tennouboshi yelled, attempting to protect the contents inside the bag as she uppercut a footsoldier in the face. "Call the others!" she told the Blue and Purple Ranger.

"Guys!" Ethan called, getting kicked into a tree in the process. "We could use some help out here!" he told the other CPU Rangers.

"Yeah, we're seriously getting pwned by these baddies!" Neptune added, kangaroo- kicking the Tyrannodrone in front of the Blue Ranger.

"Thanks," Ethan smiled weakly.

"No problemo', my fellow nerdy buddy!" Neptune grinned, turning towards the group of monsters that slowly started surrounding them. "I say it's time we show these creeps just who they're messing with!"

"Yeah," Ethan nodded in agreement and turned to face the footsoldier in front of him. "You all asked for this, not me," he taunted.

The two fell into their morphing stance and lifted their right arms up, instantly summoning their morphers along with a glowing disk in their hands.

"Hyper Thunder, Power Up!" the two shouted as they transformed into their Blue and Purple suits.

Pulling out their holstered folding Thundermax hatchets, Neptune and Ethan quickly slashed through the surrounding footsoldiers. The two raised their small hatchets in an attempt to defend themselves as another wave of monster lunged at them, but were quickly countered by the other five rangers.

"You all couldn't have done this another day?" the Red Ranger grumbled in annoyance, also wielding a small hand axe similar to the others.

"Don't blame us!" Neptune cried out, pointing at the group of enemies in front of them. "Blame them!"

"Save me the excuses," Blanc said irritably. "And I just got past my writer's block too, dammit!"

"Let's make this quick then. Griffin Staff!" Conner called, holding his red tri-staff.

"Skydragon Katana!" Neptune shouted, unsheathing a two-handed purple sword.

"Banshee Grips, baby!" Kira smirked as she held her twin daggers in hand.

"Phoenix Rapier!" Noire said, drawing her one-handed saber.

"Unicorn Spear!" Vert summoned.

"Behemoth Shield!" Ethan called, the buckler-weapon strapped to his arm.

"Frost-giant Hammer!" Blanc grinned, holding her heavy bludgeoning tool.

The seven CPU Rangers then charged at the footsoldiers and found them much easier to handle this time; cutting, slicing, stabbing, and pushing their way through the small army of Tyrannodrones and other monsters with ease.

Once all of the enemies had been taken care of, the Rangers regrouped and ran over to the mildly injured Dr. Tennouboshi, whom had just sent the three commanders that triple-teamed her away with a blast from her megaphone.

"You really like these odds?" Ethan taunted to the villainous knight, witch, and baroness somewhat collapsed several feet in front of them. "Cause' you sure look busted to me!"

"Yeah, have the three stooges had enough?" Blanc added, pointing her weapon at the trio as she and the others stood beside their teacher.

"We're not done with you, Power Rangers!" Elsa snarled angrily.

"Nor you either, Dr. Uzume Tennouboshsi!" the robotic general warned with growl, before Arfoire suddenly summoned a portal that the disappeared through along with the footsoldiers.

"They're a pleasant group," Kira grumbled snarkingly.

"They sure are, aren't they?" Blanc rolled her eyes.

"Hehe, three stooges," Neptune chuckled at White Ranger's earlier insult. "Nice one. I'm going to use that to call them out too!" she smirked.

"We better get these back to Umio," Dr. Tennouboshi interrupted as she pulled out the bag from her pocket, making sure the contents weren't damaged from the fight. "Like I said, these things are going to help us—"

"What are those, anyway?" Noire asked curiously, peering through the small pouch.

"We're going to go _flying_ with them," Ethan said pointing at the tiny sack, his tone clearly showing that he still didn't believe the science teacher's explanation as Uzume simply rolled her eyes.

"Of course we are!" Neptune argued. "We're going to be zooming around like super-saiyans with these, aren't we?" she asked the professor.

"What?" Kira approached the others with a raised eyebrow.

"Look, I have to get back to tryouts," the Red Ranger interrupted. "Can you guys handle the rest?" he asked.

"Yeah, go ahead Conner," Uzume nodded, placing an assuring hand on the Red Ranger's shoulder. "The others can fill you in later."

"Thanks," Conner nodded, rushing off, knowing full well that he likely blew his chances of making it by leaving tryouts midway through.

"Good luck!" Ethan called, heading off with the others students and their professor.

* * *

After dropping off Dr. Tennouboshi and her assorted microchips back at the secret lab, the six rangers decided to head back to The Blue Hedgehog Lounge.

"Man, Dr. T is into some weird and funky crap," Ethan commented, sitting beside Neptune on a 2-player arcade booth as they went at it against each other in some fighting game. "I don't even want to know what she and the fish are messing with down there."

"You mean Umio?" Neptune sarcastically sneered, correcting the Blue Ranger and mashing buttons on the arcade machine and joystick.

"I've got a serious feeling we won't have to wait long to find out," Kira told them, sitting on a nearby table as she tuned her guitar.

"Yeah, because she hasn't kept enough secretes from us already," Blanc shrugged, lying on a nearby couch and reading a book in her hands.

"But Dr. Tennouboshi did say that they'd be a huge help to us, after all," Vert commented, her and Noire playing a game of cards together and sitting beside Kira on the same table.

"Whoa, who is _that_?" Kira's eyes widened, her mouth dropped open a little as something suddenly caught her attention.

"Don't know," the Blue Ranger shrugged. He and the others looked up from what they were doing and noticed that the musician was staring at a boy, who appeared to be about their age and had black hair and olive tone skin as he wondered the café aimlessly.

"You mean weird school-shooter looking guy that looks like he's from a drug cartel— OUCH!" Neptune spoke up to ask before getting elbowed in the chest by a certain twintail tsundere.

"Stop pointing! Do you WANT him to hear us?" Noire angrily hissed at the lilac-haired teen with a whisper, nervously glancing back and forth at the boy wearing a silverish-colored top.

"Hello? Anyone in there?" Ethan smirked, waving a hand in front of the singer's face, noticing that Kira was still staring at the boy.

"It's too late," Noire remarked, snapping her fingers in front of the infatuated musician. "She's a goner."

"He's really… wow, isn't he?" Kira sighed dreamily, clearly not hearing her teammates' teasing as she continued to gaze at the mysterious boy in a trance-like stare.

"See? What did I tell you?" the Black Ranger added, shaking her head.

"Looks like somebody's in loooooooooooove!" Neptune teasingly remarked, causing the others to share a small chuckle.

"Ah, teenage romance at its finest," Vert clasped her hands together and giggled at the love-struck Yellow Ranger.

"At least he's rather easy on the eyes," Blanc commented as she turned back to her book, ignoring the others.

"Can I get you a glass of water? Maybe an oxygen mask?" Ethan laughed at the Yellow Ranger.

"Let the lovebirds be," Vert smirked, clearly interested in observing the potential romance between Kira and the mysterious boy.

"Why do I feel like he going to become the token evil ranger or something?," Neptune jokingly jinxed, not knowing how correct her predictions would become down the line.

"Quiet! He's coming over here!" Kira hissed, quickly turning her head back down at her guitar.

"Hey, I'm looking for Hayley?" the boy asked. "I'm supposed to start work today."

"She must be around here somewhere. Probably with IF, I suppose," Vert suggested, then looked at the new guy curiously. "Haven't I seen you at Gamacademi before?" she asked. "We're in the same first period together with Mrs. Ryghts, aren't you?"

"Oh yeah, you're in the student council," the boy nodded, introducing himself. "I just moved here last week," he smiled before continuing. "My name's Trent."

"A pleasure to meet you Trent," the Green Ranger shook his hand before introducing herself and Noire, along with the others. "I'm Vert and this is Noire, the vice-president of the student council," she said as Noire offered a nervous smile.

"Hi," Noire cautiously waved at the boy before turning back at her stack of cards. As much as she'd hate to agree with Neptune, the Black Ranger couldn't help but feel uneasy at her earlier comment. Then again, if could just be her acting like a worry-ward and all.

"And right by the arcade booth over there are Neptune and Ethan," Vert continued, pointing at the two rangers playing on the arcade machine. Neptune and Ethan offering a wave and bright smile respectively, which Trent kindly returned. "Over there on the couch is Blanc, but I'm sure you two are already familiar with each other," Vert noted at the White Ranger, still focused on her book as she casually waved a hand at Trent, who then turned his attention to the Yellow Ranger facing away from him.

"Hey," Trent greeted with a smile, and then frowned as Kira continued to not turn around or say anything to the boy. "Hey, are you okay?" he asked with an eyebrow raised.

"Oh, that's Kira. She doesn't speak," Ethan spoke up, then continued with a sarcastic sad tone. "We've been trying for years, but haven't gotten through."

"She's gone mute ever since the… well… accident," Neptune joked. "She can only say what's on her mind through her guitar—"

"I'm fine," the singer finally turned her head around from her guitar to look up at him. "It's nice to meet you," she smiled, shooting the computer nerd and lilac-haired NEET a cold glare before returning to her guitar as Trent's smile grew wider.

"Oh my, she appears to have finally spoken," Vert grinned. "Look everyone, it's a miracle— eep!" she laughed, then let out a small yelp as Kira kicked her in the shin as well as gave the Green Ranger a dirty look right before IF walked up to the small group.

"Oh hey, you must be Trent? Good timing," the brunette smiled and greeted the teenage boy, then quickly introduced herself. "I'm IF, let me show you where Hayley is; she'll get you started on the rest."

"Cool," Trent nodded in agreement, then turned to six rangers. "I guess I'll catch you guys later."

"Take care," Vert said as she and the others, minus Kira, waved with a grin at the pair heading off to the back.

"Isn't he just so wow—? OW!" Ethan smirked, walking up to Kira then cried out as she kicked his leg with her boot.

"Violent much?" Blanc rolled her eyes, observing as she sat on the couch.

"You're one to talk," Noire scoffed, receiving a cold glare from the White Ranger right before Conner walked in, not looking particularly happy.

"So, you made the team?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah," Neptune added, gesturing with a cheerful grin at the Red Ranger and also getting off the arcade booth. "How'd it go? Did you become their all-star MVP already?"

"How'd it go?" Conner repeated the Purple Ranger's first question with an irritable tone. "It's over! The coach basically said, _forget it_!" he scowled, throwing his arms in the air.

"Ouch," Neptune replied, changing to a disappointed frown at the upset soccer player. "Don't tell me it's cause' you went all AFK and all on the coach?"

"Who can blame him?" Conner replied, tossing and catching the small ball in his hands. "I mean, I basically _ditched in the middle of practice_!" he shook his head and paced angrily.

"Well it's _not_ like you didn't have good excuse," Kira pointed out sheepishly to the soccer player, trying to give some kind of silver lining.

"Right…" Conner sarcastically remarked, walking away as the six got up and followed him. "Well maybe next time, I'll get a note from our teacher," the soccer player added, his voice beginning to get louder. " _Sorry Conner couldn't make it to practice today: he was busy fighting freaky looking dinosaur-robot-zombie things in the forest!_ " he yelled as the six rangers grabbed him and quickly directed him to another side of the room, telling him to hush.

"Like he hasn't heard _that_ excuse before," Ethan whispered in frustration.

"What are you, stupid?" Noire whispered at the jock with a hiss before lightly slapping him in the face. "You can't just go around saying things like that!" she cried out.

"Idiot must've hit his head to hard during tryouts," Blanc sneered.

"Whatever," Conner huffed. "Look, the point is, what was I supposed to say?" he demanded, slumping into a small beanbag besides the six before continuing. "Man, this whole 'saving-the-world deal' is seriously starting to bum me out!"

"Not like anyone said it was going to be easy," Blanc shrugged, she and the others not quite sure what to say to cheer up their fellow leader.

"Oh boo-hoo," Neptune smirked, mocking the Red Ranger. "Look at me, I have superpowers and a giant badass robot to myself and I still want to complain— OUCH!" she joked, right before getting elbowed in the chest by Noire.

"Perhaps Dr. Tennouboshi could talk to the coach herself?" Vert suggested, breaking the awkward silence.

"Dr. Tennouboshi… Dr. T… wait a second," he said, pondering to himself before an idea suddenly lit up at the top his head. "Ah, that's right!"

"What's right?" Neptune asked.

"I need to talk to Dr. T, right now," Conner decided, shooting up from his seat and preparing to leave.

"Uh… I think she's kind of busy," Kira interrupted, stopping the Red Ranger. "Her and Umio got this whole new project—"

"Too bad!" Conner replied. "I was busy today, that didn't stop her and that fish from messing up my life!" he snapped, tugging Kira off his arm and storming off.

Noire and the other rangers glared at each other in frustration right before Ethan got up as well.

"Wait, we'll go with you!" he called out. The rest of the six rangers then got up and followed the soccer player out of the café.

* * *

As the seven CPU Rangers walked up to the cave entrance to Dr. Tennouboshi's hidden lab, loud whirling and buzzing filled the air followed by a small explosion puff of smoke.

"What in the…?" Ethan asked in confusion, noticing the debris scattered all over the room.

"Looks like a warzone here," Neptune added, scratching her head nervously.

"Don't come in it's not safe!" Uzume cried out, running as she jumped over a pair of razor-sharp wings whizzing towards her legs.

"Yeah, we kind of got that!" Kira called, her brown eyes widened after catching the sight of another pair of bright energy wings zooming across the lab.

"Look out!" Noire yelled as she and the other six ducked underneath a large holographic shard flying at them and impaling itself into the wall behind them.

"Holy camoly!" Neptune screamed, turning around to see the large plate sticking outside the side of the rock. "What the hell was that?"

"UZUUUUMEEEEEEE!" the seven students heard as the noticed the professor's fish companion zig-zagging and circling the entire room as he held on a pair of boosters whirling in a screech.

"Hold on!" Uzume called out to her partner as she caught Umio holding on to dear life on a flying set of wings before the two tumbled town and landed in front of the students several feet away. "—Ooof!"

"Let me guess, those have to do with what we brought back earlier today, don't they?" Vert raised her eyebrow, looking at the destruction in the secret lab.

"Yeah," Dr. Tennouboshi nodded, slowly getting up along with Umio and groaning in pain. "Umio and I are trying to reverse-engineer them into some upgrades for you all…"

"How's that coming?" Ethan asked slowly.

"Uhh… slowly," Umio answered with a frown, right as shrapnel of another holograph shard ricocheted off a nearby wall, causing the group to duck yet again and cover themselves. "Very, slowly…" he added.

"And with quite a mess as well," Uzume stated to the rangers nervously, with a frustrated look on her face.

"Look, I can see that you're busy with… well, with whatever," Conner said in confusion. "But I need to talk," he told the sanguine-haired teacher.

But before she could respond, the blast from another small explosion tossed herself and Umio outside the main room and into the cave entrance.

"Woah," Ethan stammered, moving out of the two's way right before the entrance wall slowly started closing.

"Guess we could take a break," Uzume muttered with an upset shrug along with Umio, dusting the dirt and black-powder smudges off herself before continuing. "Alright, so what's up?" she asked.

"You gotta find someone to replace me," Conner answered with a sigh, with his teammates whirling their heads and staring at him in disbelief.

"Eh?" Neptune's eyes beaded in surprise.

"What are you talking about?" Kira demanded.

"You can't be serious," Vert protested.

"You're talking crazy!" Ethan hissed.

"Have you lost your mind?" Noire exclaimed.

"He _really_ did hit his head too hard during practice," Blanc complained.

"Hold-up, hold up," Dr. Tennouboshi interrupted the seven. "Settle down everyone," Uzume continued, pointing a hand at the soccer jock. "What's the problem?"

"Look, I'm a soccer player," Conner sighed. "That's all I've ever wanted to do, every moment of my life has led up to playing for a pro team," he added, shaking his head. "I get the greatest chance of my life, and I blow it…"

"I understand how you feel," Uzume nodded reluctantly. "And you know what, you're right."

"Say wuuuuuuut?!" Neptune spoke out, but the professor and her companion ignored her.

"You're agreeing with him?" Ethan demanded at their sanguine-haired teacher.

"I'm agreeing with him because it was my fault for throwing you all into this mess in the first place," Dr. Tennouboshi answered the computer nerd and then turned to face the Red Ranger again. "But before you do anything else, I want to take a moment and think about this decision," she warned the boy.

"Look, I've got stuff I want to do too," Kira reminded Conner. "But I'm here, I'm dealing!"

"Same here," Noire added. "I have this stacked on top of all my school duties as well, and you don't see me complaining," she told him.

"Good for you two," Conner looked at the two, sighing and then shook his head. "I guess I'm just different…" he muttered softly, walking away.

"And here I thought the red guy was supposed to be the leader," Ethan grumbled in frustration, earning a glare from Uzume shaking her head.

"…Or the one that dies first," Neptune shrugged, then crossed her arms with a huff. "The red-shirts are always the one that die first."

"Just give him some time to think," Uzume reminded them as the group went off their different ways, leaving the pair by themselves in silence.

"You can't keep hiding the truth from them forever," Umio warned the sanguine-haired girl. "They're going to find out one way or another about your past, eventually."

"Yeah, I know," Uzume replied with a sigh, not looking forward to telling them about her past as a CPU goddess from an entirely different world, and how the gems were originally meant for herself and Umio to return back to their home world with the Neptune and company THEY were familiar with.

* * *

Meanwhile, in another location…

"The time has almost come, a new Sharicite crystal has been discovered," Mesogag commanded, as he and Kurome sensed the presence of a mysterious orange crystal before turning to and commanding his subordinates. "Activate the Dark Energy generator," he commanded Elsa, the intention of using the created monster as a distraction to the Rangers. "And you two, retrieve the gem immediately," the humanoid monster told Arfoire and Zeltrax.

* * *

With Blanc and Noire out to go shopping, and Vert staying to help Uzume and Umio with the wings, Neptune, Ethan, and Kira soon found themselves coming across Conner on an open soccer field, who appeared to be talking to one of the Waves' team coach.

"I got a call from one of your teachers," the three overheard and eavesdropped on their conversation. "…Tells me it was her fault you had to leave today."

"Does that mean I have a shot?" Conner asked the coach, curiously.

"You've always had a shot, son," the coach assured him before continuing. "But you're ready for this?" he asked. "You'll need to give up everything."

"Y-yeah, I am!" Conner nodded with a mixed feeling of eagerness, regret, and confusion.

"Alright, I'll let you know," the coach nodded with a smile before walking off, with the others immediately approaching Conner soon after.

"Hey bro," Ethan called out to the Red Ranger as he turned around and answered back at the three.

"So, thing's okay with the coach?" Kira asked.

"Y-yeah, I think so," Conner answered before changing to a frown. "Listen, I'm sorry you guys…" he apologized to the trio. "You've gotta' understand—"

"Yeah, we do," Kira nodded with a reluctant smile.

"She does more than I do," Ethan shrugged. "But if that's you really want…"

"Not me," Neptune joked with a huff of annoyance. "How could you be a wuss and abandon the party— OUCH!" she added, before immediately getting elbowed in the chest by Kira and backtracking what she said. "I-I mean, it's fine. Don't sweat it bruh…" she told the jock with a wry grin right before the four's bracelets immediately beeped.

" _Guys, we've got a situation," Uzume told them, observing the chaos that was occurring downtown through her monitor. "There's a monster attacking the city. People are in danger._ "

" _Yeah, where the hell are you buffoons?!_ " Blanc growled from another channel on the communicator; her and Noire already fighting off the crowd of monsters. "We could use some help here!"

" _Are you all coming or what?_ " Noire added, flipping over a Tyrannodrone that tried to jump on her back.

"Got it. We're on our way," the group answered, ending the communication and then turned to Conner.

"Okay, this is the last time," the Red Ranger nodded reluctantly to the trio as they raised their wrists and each called on their morphers. "Ready?"

"Ready," the rest of them answered.

"Hyper Thunder, Power Up! Ha!" they all shouted, suiting up and transforming before rushing off towards the battle.

* * *

The four made it in time to see a strange-looking winged creature easily tossing away Blanc and Noire with a screech.

"Hey, bird-brain!" Ethan yelled, running towards the monster and firing bolts of energy with his transformed-axe-weapon, causing the monster to be knocked off its feet. "Thundermax!"

"Cool, these things turn into blasters too!?" Neptune shouted in disbelief, her, Kira, and Conner also continuing to fire at the creature with their small handheld hatchet weapons turned into miniature sidearms.

"About damn time you girls showed up," Blanc groaned in pain, taking the Yellow Ranger's offered hand and getting up.

"Thanks," Noire said, grabbing onto Neptune's hand before noticing a certain soccer-player with them. "What are you doing here?" she asked the Red Ranger with a raised eyebrow, clearly not hiding the annoyance in her voice. "I thought you said you quit being a ranger?"

"Last time, and after this I'm through," Conner told the Black Ranger, moving past her and aiming his Thundermax blaster at the monster, which got back up again. "Ready to give up?"

"SQUAAAAK! Catch me if you can!" the monster taunted, quickly flying off into the sky and dodging their shots.

"He's getting away!" Kira exclaimed, about to run after it but Conner held out his arm and blocked her path.

"We'll never catch him at this rate," the Red Ranger told her, shaking his head in worry right before the six noticed a certain Green CPU Ranger flying towards them with a pair of prism-colored wings floating on her back, reflecting in a purplish tint.

"Whoa, crazy-flying lady!" Neptune jokingly said outloud in disbelief.

"Yoo-Hoo," Vert called out to them. "Over here, ladies (and gentlemen)," she waved, tossing down a small care-package that landed in front of the group, suddenly bursting open on its own they heard their morphers beep.

" _You can now,_ " Uzume told them, which the six teenagers stared at the crate in confusion as they each grabbed its mysterious tiny contents, suddenly latching onto their morphers and bursting open to reveal bright, transparent, glowing energy wings that appeared to be floating behind their backs.

For Neptune, Vert, Noire, and Blanc, the wings that digistructed on their backs appeared to highly resemble their 'goddess' forms of the four's equivalent in another timeline or dimension, in terms of both color and form. As for Kira, Ethan, and Conner, their wings appeared to match or complement with their ranger colors, with each retaining its own unique blocky/round design.

" _Meet your CPU wings!_ " Umio told them. " _These will grant you the ability to fly, just as the goddesses once did._ "

"See, told you she could pull it off," the Purple Ranger nudged Ethan, causing him to roll his eyes in annoyance.

"Alright!" Conner cheered, already beginning to feel lighter off the ground while he examined the floating wings on his back. "Let's go!" he shouted, taking off into the air and regrouping with Vert as the others quickly followed suit, chasing the bird-creature.

"Over there!" the Green Ranger called, spotting the monster as the seven flew closer to it, catching glimpse a group of footsoldiers underneath them terrorizing the city, with Conner and Neptune noticing the crowd of the minions cornering a little girl.

"No!" Conner gasped in horror, realizing it was a young kid he came across earlier today during tryouts. "I'll help the girl, you go after that freak," he ordered.

"Right, on it!" the others with the exception of Neptune nodded, turning a corner and giving chase to the flying monster.

"With that many of them? Not by yourself you are," the Purple Ranger countered in a serious voice. "I'm coming with you," she stated determinedly.

She and the Red Ranger nodded at each other in assurance before diving down towards the ground, tackling the two monsters about to charge at the girl before finishing off the rest of the horde of enemies surrounding them.

"Are you okay?" Conner asked the little girl, who nodded at him and Neptune with a bright smile.

A woman, who appeared to be the girl's guardian, quickly ran towards the child, hugging her with a cherished smile along with tears in her eyes before looking at the two rangers in relief.

"Don't worry, she's safe now," Neptune assured her with a thumbs-up as Conner gave the little kid a pat on the back before the Purple and Red Rangers ran off to help their teammates.

...

"Look out!" Noire cried out, her and the other rangers steering around a billboard. "On your right!"

"I seriously need to get used to these," Blanc muttered, still trying to maintain altitude while avoiding the high-rises.

The five flew at the monster even higher towards the roof of a very tall building where it jumped down and landed on the ground with a slam.

"Woah!" Kira gasped, forcing herself to stop midair along with the others.

"T-that's a long way down!" Noire shivered, trying to stay afloat.

"You afraid of heights? SQUAAAAAK!" the monster taunted from bellow.

"You wish! You goddamn oversized chicken!" Blanc spat, pulling out her Frost-giant hammer before diving down and smashing it in the head, with each of the other five following up with their own attacks.

"Griffin Tri-Staff Strike!" Conner suddenly reappeared along with Neptune with their weapons in hand, landing a triple attack that sent the enemy spiraling.

"Cross-Combination!" Neptune shouted, slicing past the winged creature in an x-shaped swing before flying into formation with the others and combining weapons.

"Zeta Blaster!" Conner called, their cannon starting up. "Firing!" they shouted, blasted the monster and destroying him instantly into chunks as they descended back on the ground.

"That goose is cooked!" Ethan shouted triumphantly as he and the others began cheering, only to notice arcs of dark energy and surging all over the monster's remains along with an eerie-looking crystal spawn on top of it, causing the creature to reappear and grow larger, coursing with dark energy.

"Whoa! Big fat chicken just respawned!" Neptune shouted, pointing at the monster in disbelief.

"Uh… Dr. T, we may have a problem on our hands…" Conner spoke into his morpher.

" _Let me guess; a taller and much angrier-looking version of that guy you were just fighting?_ " Uzume suggested sarcastically.

"You've done this before, haven't you?" Ethan asked, scratching his head.

" _With a few friends, you could say,_ " she answered softly with a slight frown before turning towards her fish companion. "Umio, send in the Zords."

"Boo-yah!" Ethan and the six other rangers turned and cheered as they saw their mechanical allies running towards them.

"Ready?" Conner said, looking at his teammates.

"Oh yeah," Kira and the rest nodded before they quickly jumped into their Zords and combined together, forming the CPU-Megazord.

"Grr… SQUAAAK!" the monster chirped frantically, firing a small laser that blasted them backwards.

"Hey, I've got an idea," Kira suggested as they shook off the attack. "Boomerang Attack!" she shouted.

Pulling off the folded Fae-wing on its shoulder, the Megazord tossed it at the monster, cutting off its shoulder mounted laser. The Megazord then proceeded to jump in the air before calling on its finishing move, jousting straight through the large enemy and eliminating it in a flashy explosion.

"Now that's what I call monster busting!" Kira grinned, the others cheering with agreement.

"Skewered chicken, anyone?" Neptune joked as she and the rest of the rangers quickly jumped out of the Megazord and landed nearby.

Spotting the little girl her and Conner had rescued earlier, the Red Ranger waved to her as she ran over to both him and Neptune with a big smile.

"Thank you," the little girl said, hugging both the Purple and Red Ranger warmly.

"Anytime kid, anytime," Conner replied, patting her on the head in assurance, thoughts racing in his head regarding his duties as a ranger.

'He's definitely staying,' Neptune smiled to herself confidently as she hugged the little girl as well.

* * *

Back at the Blue Hedgehog Lounge, Trent looked up as he carried two bottles of water, handing one to Kira and wishing her good luck before passing the stage her band was setting up on. Ethan, along the other rangers, sat at a nearby table when they noticed Conner walking in.

"Oh hey," Ethan greeted. "Didn't expect to see you here."

"Why not?" Conner said with a smirk, walking over to the table and grabbing an open seat between the computer-geek and lilac-haired NEET. "We're all partners in crime, right?" he grinned.

"Are we now?" Blanc asked in a doubtful tone, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, we are," Conner nodded at the short teenager with a smile.

"Glad to see you've come to your senses with monster ass-kicking," Neptune grinned, patting the soccer player on the back in a playful manner.

"Right," Conner chuckled to himself before turning towards the others and continuing. "Look, sorry about what happened earlier. I sort've deserved the crap you all gave to me for complaining," he apologized, shrugging weakly.

"Nah, it's fine man," Ethan assured the Red Ranger. "Sorry we gave you such a hard time before."

"So, we're cool?" Conner asked with a weak smile.

"Let bygones be bygones," Noire smirked confidently, waving her hair off to the side. "Isn't that right, Neptune?"

"I dunno…" the Purple Ranger shrugged, going off on a ramble at the jock before getting kicked in the shin my Noire. "You're going to have to buy me dinner first before I even conside— ouch!" she shouted. "Okay, okay. Apology accepted," she told him, rubbing her leg in pain.

"So, what happened with the Waves, by the way?" Vert asked, throwing the conversation back on track.

"I had to make a choice," Conner explained. "That little girl made me realize something."

"…that you're a lolico— OUCH!" Neptune tried to interrupt, only to have Noire kick her even louder. "Cut it out, will ya'? I'm trying to make a funny here."

"Go on?" Vert and the rest asked the teenage boy.

"That there's nothing more important than what we're doing," he continued, right as Hayley appeared with six drinks.

"Hey Conner," she greeted, setting the drinks down in the middle of the table. "Sorry you didn't make the team."

"Uh, yeah…" the Red Ranger stammered, not knowing what to say.

"Don't worry," she assured him. "These are on the house," Hayley smiled before walking off.

"How does she do that?" Conner asked, trying to contain a grin of surprise.

"Dude, seriously… Hayley knows all man," Ethan grinned back. "And I'm sorry too," he added, his smile dropping a little. "With you not making the team and all, I mean."

"We all are," Vert added, giving him a thoughtful smile.

"Yeah. Look, ya'll know I still would've chosen you all, right?" the soccer player looked at his fellow teammates.

"Because of my cute, bubbly personality?" the Purple Ranger joked with a sly grin, getting bopped in the head by Noire.

"Like hell you will. We would've broken your legs otherwise," Blanc told Conner half-jokingly with a smile and wink; the group shared a small laugh and wondered as to how serious the petite teenager's threat was.

"Thank you for coming, everyone," they looked around as Hayley spoke up from the front of the stage. "Tonight, we've got something really special for you, a promising group with a lot to say. Ladies and gentlemen, Houkago Tea Time!" everyone clapped and cheered as Kira and the rest her band stepped forward, beginning to play.

"Hey, wasn't Dr. T supposed to be here?" Blanc raised an eyebrow at the others, remembering how their Biology teacher had promised to see Kira perform.

"I dunno," Neptune shook her head in a confused expression. "Guess dealing with those chips finally made her go bonkers," she suggested, remembering how passed out her and Umio had been since the last time they met.

The six teens looked at each other and shrugged at the idea. Little did they know what was occurring both at the hidden laboratory and right outside the café.

...

"Umio, come in! What's going on?" Dr. Tennouboshi gritted her teeth nervously as she paced towards the café's entrance, worried about the well-being of her lifelong companion back at the lab. However, Uzume suddenly fell into an ambush, with a encirclement of monsters suddenly appearing to surround her.

'Shit,' she thought to herself, kicking and knocking away the minions attempting to grab on to her.

"Let go of me, dammit!" she shouted at the monsters, before suddenly getting trapped in some kind of magical sphere by Arfoire standing from afar next to Zeltrax, who appeared to be holding some kind of orange-colored Sharicite encased in stone. Before Uzume knew it, the sanguine-haired teacher was suddenly teleported away along with the robotic knight and evil witch.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hey, everyone, hoped you guys liked this story's version of "Wave Goodbye" in the original Dino Thunder TV show. Just want to try point out a few details to clarify and elaborate on:

As you can kinda see from the first few chapters and now, Uzume and Umio sort've come off as a kind of Zordon & Alpha duo, which I didn't really realize till now. Only difference is that Uzume isn't a floating head, and Umio isn't a clueless robot. At the same time, you all can probably see where I'm going at with Uzume, right? Basically, for her to pull a Tommy Oliver and basically become the first '6th Ranger', so to speak.

Bepsi is a reference to Pepsi, obviously (though in retrospect, Nepsi could've worked too). And yes, TDT is a reference to TSM, or Team SoloMid, the E-sports team. Also, the red-shirt is a reference to series like Star-Trek, where death-flags are raised on certain characters based off their shirt color. Lastly, Houkago-Tea-Time is obviously a K-On reference.

Instead of the Raptor-Riders that were introduced in DT, I decided to give the Rangers' wings they can use to fly around, like the HDD/Goddess forms of the main characters in Neptunia (with limits, of course).

Seeing that Neptune and Conner are basically the leaders of the respective original series, I intend to make the two butt heads a bit against each other. My plan is for the two to be leaders in their own-right. With Conner being the more hot-headed of the two and the traditional 'leader-ish traits,' while Neptune will be a bit more lax and unorthodox with her plans while still taking a serious nature time to time (i.e: Purple Heart?).

The color of Trent's shirt probably might've been a dead giveaway of his eventual Ranger-form as well, but I'm not going to say anything specifically.

Also, how would you guys feel about eventually adding Plutia, Peashy, and possibly even Rei as potential other (Villian) Rangers as well (at least, until they become good...)? I imagine their Ranger forms would go with their names in Victory/RB;3 (Iris, Eden, and Tari?) rather than actual colors, perhaps.

And lastly, yes. This 'world' or dimension takes place in another timeline, one where the CPU/goddesses are long dead and their names forgotten. In this case, Neptune and co. are basically 'human' in this world, so to speak. As for the setting, it's probably closest-matching to the Neptunia Highschooler light-novels and/or the school setting in MegaTagmension.

Hope that clarifies the details a bit more details, be sure to tune in to the next chapter... Legacy of a Goddess, where the truth behind Uzume's knowledge in the Power Rangers as well as her story post VII is finally revealed.

Also, if you enjoy the story, or at least read through this crap, please be sure to rate, comment and review. Not only does it boost my ego, but it lets me know on any meaningful feedback and tell whether the story is getting love or not. Thanks!

Until then, this is Neptune-Megaz0rd signing out.


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